Should I call it a wash and just start fresh?
I have been around for 3 months now and I feel like I am kind of spinning my wheels. Granted I took a different approach to my website than what is really detailed in the training. I made it more of a news style site rather than a direct marketing site.
The thing that is bugging me the most though is that it seems like when I feel like I am getting somewhere I really just end up back where I started, when it comes to traffic and page ranking. I did an article on the new Spawn movie that was announced and according to the Search Console it was ranked at the average of 10.3 on the 16th of this month, now it is nowhere to be found. It's still indexed but it isn't nowhere near the top 100.
I feel like I am just a little burned out because even though I have been pushing myself to generate great content no one wants to click on any links. I have kept my affiliates to a minimal so I could just focus on their products, which are the ones my type of audience enjoys.
I made my first sale after my 1st month, even though it was for something that I wasn't even selling but the cookie was there. It was great that someone just clicked the link. Knowing that someone just clicked it really made my day.
Now though it just seems that no matter what I do I can't get people to click links, I am neither gaining nor losing traffic. To be honest I haven't had much anyways. It just seems to stay around the 2-4 user mark.
I apologize if it seems that I am whining, I promise that is not the case. I just feel frustrated with the work that I have put into this but can't seem to get anything in return. I'm not even worried about monetary values, I'm more concerned about the traffic. I know if I could get the traffic the rest will follow.
The odd thing is that I have received praises about the content that I have created. This praise comes from more than just the wonderful people here at WA. It comes from random people on facebook, friends, acquaintances, family members, etc.
If you could please take a look at my site (http://justbeageek.com) and give me an idea of where to go to next with it, or let me know if I should just condemn it and start over. I want so bad to succeed and I know you can't succeed without failing first. I look at failure as a small success but I really want to turn that into a big success.
Thoughts, opinions, suggestions, positive/constructive criticism are all welcome!
Thank you WA for the help, in advance!
Recent Comments
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I checked out your site and I definitely think you have a great layout and format to it. The content seemed to flow(I briefly skimmed though), the main thing that stuck out to me was the Infolinks.
Whenever I see InfoLinks on a website I NEVER click on them. In fact, I thought that it was one of those cases where you hover over the word and it would give you a definition.
I think you would be better off turning not using info links and then linking to other relevant pages on your website where appropriate and then linking to actual products.
I saw that you had some Amazon links down at the bottom of the page when you wrote:
"Would you like to get caught up in the comics? Check out The Walking Dead Compendium One, The Walking Dead Compendium Two, and The Walking Dead Compendium Three"
I liked this, but I think if you could somehow describe it a little more like "Check out these great Compendiums you can buy on Amazon" or something like that.
You may want to try to find opportunities to link a little higher in the page. People may not be making it all the way down, especially if they are already ignoring the hyperlinks due to the InfoLinks stuff.
Summary: Move your amazon links higher, get rid of info links, interlink to other relevant content on your site. That's my recommendation.
Hey Thomas!
Thank you kindly for the honest feedback! I greatly appreciate it!
I agree with the infolinks as well. I added them in today because I thought it might be worth a try. I personally don't enjoy them at all but they do seem to work for other sites. So I thought why not give it a shot. Again though, I should have just stuck with my gut and went on without them.
I was wondering about the Amazon links as well. It seems that they aren't doing a great job being at the bottom like that. Being a news style site I honestly didn't know where else to put them. I will start incorporating them into the main area because you are right, some people seem to want to skim the information to get the main info on the page.
Interlinking, it seems, I am the weakest at. I will work on adding new links within the posts that will point to other "needed" information located on the site. Maybe I should focus on creating new posts that center around the already available content. Mainly just updated versions or side stories relating to the already available information.
Again thank you very much for the great HONEST feedback! It is incredibly valuable!
Wow Thomas ... Now THIS is REAL feedback!
If you just placed the InfoLinks on your site, then by all means test them out and see if they make a difference or make you money. If they work, stick with them. If they don't then drop them and try something else. I think you just need to keep adding content and experiment with things to find out what works.
If you are going for a news style site maybe check out other news style sites and see how they are monetizing their content such as type of ads, ad placements, etc. Again if it works for you, then keep it. Otherwise drop it.
Thank you Thomas for the input!
Yeah I wanted to test out the infolinks because I believe in trying different ways to monetize my site. But to be honest I really felt that it made the site "busy". Granted I have a lot going on in the site but it just didn't seem like they belonged there.
I have been following several news sites that pertain to my niche, although there aren't many. The largest being Nerdist. Their marketing mainly relies on just Adwords advertisments placed strategically within their post frames. You can also see them pop up at the top, bottom, and bottom right corner of the page. They aren't intrusive but they do stick out from time to time like a sore thumb.
I try to incorporate my advertisements in a way that doesn't hinder while making them prevalent. I personally leave sites constantly that have ad's that prevent me from reading the content quickly or take my eye away from the content for to long.
Thank you again for your help! It was well written and helped me tremendously!