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Hey John -

Hope you're doing well - thought to post in this 'non-music related' section of the forum since it's not music related at all - I'd really love to know if you have any advice on this.

I recall you mentioning once that prior to running FB ads, you started out with doing SEO strategies with Google and websites?

And I think you also said that the income you were making from it crashed cause Google changed its algorithm or something like that, I really can't remember the exact details, and that's when you dove into the world of running ads.

I'd really love to know your take on how you would promote a health & fitness blog - any advice or tips you could give would be awesome. I know this is sort of lengthy. I haven't told many people about this site, so I'm sort of giving you the backstory here.

Back in mid-October of 2020, I started a health & fitness website/blog, where I'm writing articles helping people learn tips and tricks with fat loss/fitness. I went with health/fitness cause it's really the only other topic I truly know the way I know music.

First of all, I understand that this niche is completely saturated, but I'm slowly carving my tiny little place on the internet, as small as it is. I do detailed keyword research for every article I write, finding long tail keywords, with high search volume but low competition, so even if an article only has the potential to get like 10 - 20 views per month, it'll be worth it when there are lots of articles written and being found. Each article is over 1,000 words.

Some of my articles are ranking on first page of Yahoo and Bing (not Google yet - although Google is just starting to give me some organic traffic in the past few weeks). Actually, Bing & Yahoo have both taken some of my articles to first spot of the first page, and even highlighted sections from an article on the first page, which I think is super cool, cause it makes my site look like an authority on certain topics.

Like one of them was top 10 lowest calorie beers, and I can't remember if it was bing or yahoo, but one of them highlighted my beer selections on the first page, so if someone were searching that keyword, they'd find my article right away.

Anyway, I dove into this blogging world completely, and it takes me a lot of time every week to write - I mean I started writing an article per day, but that kind of burnt me out, and now I'm writing 3 articles a week. At this point the blog has about 130+ articles written. I've lost count.

I'd say half the articles I'm doing reviews or discussing best of something - and linking over to Amazon or an affiliate program. The other articles are all just informational. I've got Google Adsense running on the whole site, which gets annoying but I deal with it.

I've made a few sales from one of my affiliate programs, which is awesome, cause it pays 50% from a $58 product - one of the sales was from a complete stranger. Also, a few random Amazon sales have come in, which pays almost nothing, but it's still nice to see. And Google Adsense does add up to a few cents to sometimes a few dollars a day, depending on the traffic.

I know Google SEO takes forever for them to start looking at your site as any kind of authority cause they want you to prove yourself by writing consistently so they know you actually care about your site. I accept the fact that it's going to take possibly up to a year before I start getting a decent amount of traffic from organic searches.

I did recently stumble upon a totally accidental strategy in Facebook groups. Just literally helping people in health and fitness groups. I've come to realize I have so many articles written on everything from Intermittent Fasting, to calorie deficits, to best workout program for fat loss for men, for women, fast food meals under 500 calories, and just a ton of different topics... that someone will ask a question in a group, and I give a very honest response, and link over to one of my relevant articles, and I'll get traffic immediately.

I've noticed that by helping people in groups for even 15 - 20 minutes a day, I have gotten over 100 page views in a day, and people are actually finding what I teach to be valuable, cause I see reading times, sometimes up to even 20 minutes...other times less than 1 minute. It's nice to see though...also, I get traffic from USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, and more countries...and it's really cool in Google analytics to see people actually spending time reading, so I conclude that my articles are helping some people out there!

But anyway, I'm wondering if you have any suggestions as to how you'd promote the site? For instance, I wonder if that sale I got for a workout program review - I don't know if that sale came from me helping people in FB groups, or from organic traffic.

I figure I have to learn to set up rules inside Google Analytics to see how long people are on certain pages, and possibly the journey they take on my site? And then I also need to install a Pixel on my site properly, but I don't think I can install a Pixel on the sales page from the workout program I promote in one of my review articles.

Is there any specific way you would suggest promoting a website to get more sales? Possibly using FB ads? Is it worth it to run ads to articles that are reviews?

Creating this blog is the most work I've ever put into any kind of online endeavor. I probably spend a good 12 - 20 hours or more weekly on it, and I do it because I believe it's going to pay off in a passive income.

I knew going into it that this was a long term game...I truly enjoy helping people with questions they need answers for, and I plan to continue writing regularly to keep building up trust and authority with search engines too.

I honestly don't even know what to expect. I have this feeling I'm going to learn a lot in the coming months, as it starts to generate more organic traffic, but for now, I'd love to know any tips you've got on this kind of marketing?

Sorry for such a long post here, I don't even know how concise it all was. Having a blog is so new to me. I don't know if I should just let it sit there until it develops a stream of organic traffic, and keep writing, or do more work to bring more traffic now...I mean, if I can get more sales from my review articles, that would be awesome.

Oh, and I cannot believe I don't have a mailing list connected to the site yet - that's gotta happen soon.

Anyway, thank you for reading - any tips, advice, or comments I greatly greatly appreciate! Thank you!

Paul

June 21, 2021
11:03 am

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https://www.screencast.com/t/nMQkA2y8sPK

Hey Paul,

I recorded a video response. Here you go...

Having trouble with your marketing? Wish you could have an experienced direct-to-fan marketing expert look over your actual campaigns, music, or content and offer feedback? Or perhaps you’re just looking for a little one-on-one assistance so you can ask questions that pertain to your specific goals and get a second, more experienced, perspective? Click here to book a session with me now.

June 23, 2021
7:43 am

Chicago

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Hey John -

First of all, thanks so much for the video response - that's amazing and it was very helpful! I had to digest everything you said the first time I heard it, and now listening again...

It gave me some things to really think about, and probably implement right away. Especially the mailing list. I totally get where you're coming from. I don't mind doing the slow turtle SEO pace cause I do like writing articles knowing people are searching for answers...but at this point, I want to see how I can start monetizing sooner, especially since someone already purchased the main program I promote from my site.

I've noticed that about 100 visitors in a day can yield me about $1 - $2 from Adsense. Or at least that's the trend I'm noticing. Actually, I sort of take it back - it's random - cause I could get 2 clicks, and still make $1. I'm learning that it really depends on the specific ad someone clicks on. Some of them pay almost nothing, while others pay much higher. So, I guess the more traffic to the site, the better chances are to make more.

So I went to your New Zealand Brewer site - I really like how clean it is. Just really simple to scroll through and read everything...so, when you say that on a great month, the site brings in about $1000, that's from the $5 a day ad spend on the site? Is that using FB ads? I know you have the Podcast too, which you put ads on, but where does the money come from then?

Do you promote a specific product on the site? I don't see ads running - But I was listening to one of your podcasts and I noticed you start it off saying that the episode is brought to you by Brew Shop, and people can get 10% off when they use a code? So is that sort of like affiliate marketing but through coupon codes vocally mentioned in the Podcast? And then you earn a commission from anyone who uses that code?

I think what I need to do is exactly what you suggested. I'll create a little PDF book or possibly a useful chart that helps people and offer it as a free giveaway for signing up to the mailing list. And then I can easily send out an email or even automate a series of emails for literally months helping people learn various weight loss/fitness topics - cause at this point, there is SO much content on my site, it's insane.

So, would you run separate ads to a landing page asking people to sign up to your mailing list? And another set of ads to to send people to specific articles on my site? And spending $5 a day would be sufficient?

I definitely want a large chunk of people hitting a few different articles I wrote, because they have major earning potential. These are articles in which I review a specific workout program/eating plan that really helped me - and it's the program that inspired me to start the site anyway. It's one of those articles where someone signed up recently and I earned a $28 commission. However, I have no idea if they signed up via FB when I was answering people's questions and directing them to my article or through Organic traffic.

So - it seems I should be setting up the mailing list like right away and start sending traffic to it.

And once I have enough people on the mailing list - similar to how you teach MMM, I'd just create a series of emails explaining why this program can help them.

And if you do run ads to people who just direct them to articles, would they be like really basic, like, "learn 10 of the lowest calorie beers - you'd be surprised"...and just send traffic to beer lovers and people looking to lose weight, and that's about it?

For the most part, that's the gist I got from your response, and it sounds like a way faster way to get traffic...I'm gonna put a focus on getting that started. Thanks for such a detailed response, was very helpful!

Paul

---

P.S. -

That's really cool to hear your first experiment was doing a paranormal site. I'm fascinated by that haha. Not even kidding, on one of my birthdays, my friends and I travelled to one of the top 10 haunted cemeteries in America and went there...Bachelor's Grove Cemetery - it's been on various paranormal shows, and it's actually in Illinois so it wasn't far.

June 25, 2021
2:11 pm

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Paul said
Hey John -

First of all, thanks so much for the video response - that's amazing and it was very helpful! I had to digest everything you said the first time I heard it, and now listening again...

It gave me some things to really think about, and probably implement right away. Especially the mailing list. I totally get where you're coming from. I don't mind doing the slow turtle SEO pace cause I do like writing articles knowing people are searching for answers...but at this point, I want to see how I can start monetizing sooner, especially since someone already purchased the main program I promote from my site.

Cool. Just know that if and when Google changes their algorithm, it could dramatically change your bottom line. That's what ultimately happened to me. But if you keep a mailing list at the center of what your doing then you'll be ok.

I've noticed that about 100 visitors in a day can yield me about $1 - $2 from Adsense. Or at least that's the trend I'm noticing. Actually, I sort of take it back - it's random - cause I could get 2 clicks, and still make $1. I'm learning that it really depends on the specific ad someone clicks on. Some of them pay almost nothing, while others pay much higher. So, I guess the more traffic to the site, the better chances are to make more.

Definitely. You'll find your long term averages are pretty steady. Just go off of that figure.

So I went to your New Zealand Brewer site - I really like how clean it is. Just really simple to scroll through and read everything...so, when you say that on a great month, the site brings in about $1000, that's from the $5 a day ad spend on the site? Is that using FB ads? I know you have the Podcast too, which you put ads on, but where does the money come from then?

The $1000 a month comes from ad space that I sell in the podcast, and more recently a Patreon page. But mostly ads. I did that old school and just called and emailed around looking for sponsors. I send the ads to the podcast posts to grow the listeners. The post pages also have sign up forms on them and I pitch signing up in the podcast itself. But I've always meant to create a downloadable pdf recipe book and offer it via a squeeze page. I just never did.

Do you promote a specific product on the site? I don't see ads running - But I was listening to one of your podcasts and I noticed you start it off saying that the episode is brought to you by Brew Shop, and people can get 10% off when they use a code? So is that sort of like affiliate marketing but through coupon codes vocally mentioned in the Podcast? And then you earn a commission from anyone who uses that code?

No product promotion or affiliate deals. Just ad placements. Both live and recorded. Usually four per show at $120 per ep, or $480 per show. If I release two shows a month I make $960 a month plus another $150 or so from Patreon per episode. But because its all just for fun I don't release that consistently.

I think what I need to do is exactly what you suggested. I'll create a little PDF book or possibly a useful chart that helps people and offer it as a free giveaway for signing up to the mailing list. And then I can easily send out an email or even automate a series of emails for literally months helping people learn various weight loss/fitness topics - cause at this point, there is SO much content on my site, it's insane.

Yep, drive traffic to a squeeze page then send the list to your blog posts and your affiliate offers. But also do the SEO thing and then refer that traffic to the offer as well, while having your AdSense in there as well.

So, would you run separate ads to a landing page asking people to sign up to your mailing list? And another set of ads to to send people to specific articles on my site? And spending $5 a day would be sufficient?

I'd probably just send ad traffic to a squeeze page but would experiment with ads to articles to see how they did. Some might do really well, others won't. It may turn out that the squeeze page is the best bet because you can send hundreds of articles to each lead.

I definitely want a large chunk of people hitting a few different articles I wrote, because they have major earning potential. These are articles in which I review a specific workout program/eating plan that really helped me - and it's the program that inspired me to start the site anyway. It's one of those articles where someone signed up recently and I earned a $28 commission. However, I have no idea if they signed up via FB when I was answering people's questions and directing them to my article or through Organic traffic.

That's the drawback from affiliate marketing. Can't usually track.

So - it seems I should be setting up the mailing list like right away and start sending traffic to it.

Yep. I would.

And once I have enough people on the mailing list - similar to how you teach MMM, I'd just create a series of emails explaining why this program can help them.

You could do that, or you could just send out a helpful newsletter with all of your content, and that content links to your affiliate products. Or a mix.

And if you do run ads to people who just direct them to articles, would they be like really basic, like, "learn 10 of the lowest calorie beers - you'd be surprised"...and just send traffic to beer lovers and people looking to lose weight, and that's about it?

I would just find ways to make the articles appealing with copy and then mimic that in the ads, like they were natural promoted posts, but with a little more copywriting know how.

For the most part, that's the gist I got from your response, and it sounds like a way faster way to get traffic...I'm gonna put a focus on getting that started. Thanks for such a detailed response, was very helpful!

Sounds good. My pleasure.

Paul

---

P.S. -

That's really cool to hear your first experiment was doing a paranormal site. I'm fascinated by that haha. Not even kidding, on one of my birthdays, my friends and I travelled to one of the top 10 haunted cemeteries in America and went there...Bachelor's Grove Cemetery - it's been on various paranormal shows, and it's actually in Illinois so it wasn't far.

Awesome man. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I like the weird stuff, but I'm also a total skeptic. But it's fun to imagine what may be possible in this universe.

June 27, 2021
8:04 am

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Thanks so much John! I literally got to work on all of this right after reading your responses. Already set up the list, and now building a little PDF book / chart giveaway for squeeze page. I feel you really helped me get a much better focus on what steps I should be taking next with the blog that I can implement immediately. Thanks again!

June 29, 2021
2:53 pm

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That's awesome Paul. Really happy to hear it.

July 21, 2021
8:41 am

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Hi John -

Hope you're doing well. Just wanted to reach out about this again.

Actually, after your last response, I got to work on this autoresponder, using Aweber's free plan...wow - it really is better than Mailchimp, specifically, I love that you can actually call them for assistance if I needed to, AND I can set up an Automation with the free account, which even my paid Mailchimp account won't let me do now, which is insane.

I plan to eventually move my band's mailing list to a new Aweber account in the next few months too, just really nice to get a feel for how it all works though, using their tools, etc...

I'm wondering if you could give me any pointers regarding a small issue I'm encountering and wonder how you'd go about it...

I created a series of 11 emails...in the last 3 emails I'm promoting a workout program I'd like to encourage people to purchase.

I'm an affiliate for the program and I have my own login credentials to my own little portal, where I can see sales, and clicks, etc...

I log into my affiliate account using "SamCart", which is similar to Clickfunnels I guess or Kajabi...

I checked in Aweber, and I saw they have an easy way to connect SamCart and Aweber. This way, I can track sales as they come in. This was super important to me, cause I planned on creating tags, so I know if someone makes a purchase, I can move them out of that automation into a "customer" list.

The issue I'm encountering is that my SamCart account I guess is limited or something...my guess is that the company I'm an affiliate for has the main SamCart account, and us affiliates get minimal access accounts...

So, I don't have an "integrations" button inside my dashboard that allows me to connect it with Aweber seamlessly.

When this didn't work, I tried using Zapier to connect my Aweber to SamCart, and ran into another techy error too.

I also noticed in my dashboard, that if someone DOES buy a product from my affiliate link, that person's email address is sent to the company I'm an affiliate for and I can't actually see it myself...I can see sales, clicks, and the person's name inside my dashboard, but not their email address...which I guess isn't terrible, since I could look up their names in my Aweber account, if the purchase came from the emails I'm gonna send out...and then I can manually move them to another list.

So, my plan is to start bringing people onto the list by running ads at the end of this week.

But I realize now that if someone were to purchase the product from my list, I'd have to manually log in to SamCart and find out who they are, and then manually go into Aweber and move them from one list to another.

I guess it's not the worst thing in the world...I emailed SamCart and they weren't really able to help. It seems like a broken connection cause my SamCart account is limited to affiliates...so I can't integrate Aweber with it.

At the same time, if sales start coming in from my emails, then awesome...just wish there was SOME way to track them or make it easy for me to know who is purchasing in an automated way.

Just wondering what would you do in a situation like this?

Any pointers would be awesome! Thank you!

Paul

July 22, 2021
11:07 am

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Hey Paul,

I'm not all that familiar with how SamCart works but I would be very surprised if there was any kind of integration that would pass customer data to an affiliate like that. Privacy concerns would almost certainly prevent this since the customer does not know they are sharing their contact info with a third party. It would be pretty dicey to set something up like that, as far as I'm aware.

I believe the integration is for people using it as a shopping cart rather than for affiliates.

That's the downside of being an affiliate. You don't control the data. But of course the upside is that you don't have to create any products.

Most affiliates grow their list and then sell to their list. You may not be able to directly track sales and tag in aweber, but you can at least own the contact data.

July 23, 2021
11:17 am

Chicago

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Hey John -

Thanks for explaining this.

I think I had this sort of backwards in my head...well, I wanted to gather email addresses onto my list first, THEN if any of my subscribers bought the program through one of my links in an email I sent out, somehow Aweber would recognize it as a sale so I wouldn't have to manually check in the SamCart dashboard. That's where I was having trouble doing the integration.

But what you just said makes total sense now why I never had this issue with my band/music list, cause all the products are literally created by us, and sold by us in our own store...so if we made a sale, Mailchimp would immediately show it as revenue...that's sort of why I was frustrated trying to figure out what was wrong here.

In any case, I already wrote the first emails and I'll be happy if any sales come in once I start setting up the FB ads...

Thanks again for your help - BTW when I move my Pinto and the Bean list over to Aweber, I'll make sure to sign up with your referral link.

That's gonna be a big one - cause everything from MC needs to be migrated over to Aweber, but from this short time I've spent using Aweber, I like it way better than Mailchimp

July 23, 2021
12:04 pm

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