More Sales From Cold Traffic (This Online Course Converts At Exactly 2%)
I want to give you guys a quick update on the online course that I talked about in this article a few weeks back.
Making a sale is the most exciting experience of all in the affiliate marketing business, I'm sure you all feel the same way. (If you disagree, let me know what your favorite moment is!)
I am happy to say that the online course I started promoting is converting at a steady 2% - and here's the cool thing, it's converting from cold traffic!
So I wanna give you some more background information, which hopefully helps you with your own affiliate marketing (hint: online courses are great).
Product:
The product is an online course for (beginner) programmers who want to learn how to create a browser game.
The course doesn't have any prerequisites besides basic web programming skills, which anyone can learn from watching a few youtube videos.
So it's not a complete beginner course, but it's also not something with a high barrier of entry.
Traffic Source:
Traffic is coming from two places:
- Google,
- Forums.
Both traffic sources are split around 50 - 50.
I've talked about this in some of the comments on my older articles here on WA, but for me forums have always been a great source of traffic - and they continue to do so.
I find it very easy to get traffic from forums because I like explaining things...
In the programming niche, sometimes I would even write up a blog post only to have a more thorough answer to a question on the forum. And then, I could link to that blog post in my answer, which was always greatly appreciated if it truly answers their question or includes helpful examples.
Yes it's more work, but I just genuinely want to help and answer questions (I get to feel smart when I do that, lol). As an added benefit, I also learn more about my niche and my target audience.
(I guess my next week's article should really be about how to get traffic from forums xD)
Do you also have a forum or two that consistently send traffic to your blog? And if so, in which niche?
Traffic Quality:
The programming blog (from which I'm selling this online course) is currently in "passive" mode, meaning I haven't written any new blog posts in months. (I'm currently focusing all my energy on my YouTube channel and a new blog - see my profile for links if you're interested.)
That's why I didn't set up any funnel, nor am I warming up the traffic before offering the product.
In other words, I'm offering this online course to cold traffic. Which is quite insane!
Conversion Rates:
From my experience, I've never had great success with promoting directly to cold traffic. Conversion rates were abysmal.
But in this case, it is working great: At a steady 2% conversion rate! Which is why I wanted to write about it for you guys, to me this is a really good conversion rate for cold traffic.
As I have already mentioned in my previous article, this is the first time I'm selling an online course. And with the results that I'm seeing, I will continue to do so!
What do you think: Is this a good conversion rate, considering all the factors I've described in this article? I'd love to know what you think!
As always, I'll continue updating you with future progress when the occasion arises.
Recent Comments
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Hi James. Very interesting to hear your progress. Roughly how much time are you spending daily in forums to get this traffic ?
I would say on average 20 to 30 minutes per day!
- Some days there is nothing I can answer, or it was already cleared up. So I'm not gonna force myself into that discussion. (Time spent: 5min reading questions)
- Other days I can just answer quickly from the top of my head (Time spent: 10 to 20 min reading & answering).
- And then sometimes there's a day where I spend 1 hour on the forum if I have a long answer to something, or I wanna research examples before answering. (Time spent: 1h researching& answering)
I have never tracked my time on forums, to be honest...
And from what I read in books, we tend to underestimate how much time we truly needed for something. So it might have taken me longer than the numbers I've estimated above. In that case, maybe it averages more around 30 - 35 minutes a day.
Thanks James. I have looked into forums in the past but I’m currently working on something so have minimal spare time.
Interesting to hear your results though 🤔
I think long-term SEO is still what brings most of the traffic to us! I just add other methods like forums (and now Pinterest) to get the traffic trickling in, while waiting for the articles to rank on Google. Eventually, SEO will probably make up the majority of traffic for an authority blog.
James, really interesting post, I am still relatively new and am in the absorbing mode, and I love learning about other modes and ways of attracting traffic and sales.
You clearly have a descriptive and teaching way about your posts which make it readable and am guessing why people want to buy into it..so well done on the 2% cold sales and just keep doing what you are doing.. 👍
Thank you Cordelia for your valuable feedback!! I've never considered myself a good writer (and my high school teacher never approved of my essays either, lol!) which is why I'm very happy to hear you like my writing. Much appreciated. I hope you have a great weekend!!
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Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to your article on "how to get traffic from forums".
Thanks Paul, you're very kind! I remember your article from a few weeks back, where you made several sales. I hope you're blog keeps growing strong!
Just 2 sales my friend for the last 7 months lol. Receiving 10-15 organic searches daily. Need to go a long way. Wishing you great success my friend!
If you can make 2 sales, you can make 4. If you can make 4, you can make 8 :D Keep scaling and growing!
Thanks a lot and much success!