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Nobody wants to buy SEO products. Seemingly nobody needs advanced SEO tools, an all-in-one SEO book, a versatile SEO software, the only one search marketing magazine that counts or worker owned green hosting with Wordpress included. At least none of the 10,375 visitors who accounted for 12,190 visits and 21,377 page views between September 13th and October 13th.
A month ago I added affiliate ads for those 5 products and services to my blog.
I know SEO 2.0 did not perform well during the last month. I concentrated too much on StumbleUpon traffic and when I stopped focusing on SU I had to grapple for other traffic sources. Still, this does not explain this disastrous statistics:
- Solo SEO - Total Transactions: 0
- SEO Book - Total Transactions: 0
- Search Marketing Standard - Total Transactions: 0
- Web CEO - Sales Generated: 0
- Dreamhost - Nothing
There are at least several possible explanations, some of which might be:
- All SEO 2.0 readers already use those all similar products
- My SEO blog readers code their own ranking checker tools, they write SEO books themselves, and have servers of their own
- Nobody can afford those products and they use free alternatives
- Nobody is interested in SEO, people read my blog because I’m so funny
- The affiliates manipulate their statistics
- The CIA has intimidated everybody who wanted to buy them because I supported Iran
- The ads are placed in such a way that they are overlooked
While some of those reasons surely are true, at least in part, they can’t be the whole story. For instance I see the SEO Book ads by Aaron Wall virtually everywhere. I can’t imagine that nobody does sell a single copy.
On the other hand the Solo SEO tools aren’t advertised everywhere so there is not as much competition and not everybody knows or uses them already.
So there must be more to it than I grasp. Tell me: What’s the problem here? I’m not a search marketer myself. I’m a SEO. I work for clients who sell real products or services and do not use affiliate ads.
What are your experiences with SEO affiliate ads?
This thing has 22 Comments
Well I can’t speak for others but Aaron sells on Payment Blogger, not great stat’s we get maybe 2 sells a month and 2/3 people click through to his site a day so that’s around 1 in 40 conversion rate which is not spectacular.
The difference is the market Payment Blogger is a niche site for advertising and monetising a site while it covers SEO area its not the sole focused on such things therefore visitors are not all hardened SEOs.
On the other hand you are selling to the converted most of your visitors will have hosting and almost all will have come across Aarons’ book and bought it or chosen not to by now.
Finally a month is a tiny length of time many users will sit on their hands for a while before they make their decision it took about 3 months before we saw the first sale via Aaron site. Guess I’m saying keep positive but also remember that your audience is pretty knowledgeable bunch (that’s why they are here) and many in our industry in particular are totally ad blind it took me a few seconds to even find Aarons book.
I’d pay to see you broadcast (or webcast) a webinar on SEO 2.0. Seriously. Consider selling yourself for a change. Wait, that didn’t sound right…
I suspect SEOBook would sell great on sites only vaguely affiliated with SEO.
Perhaps an internet marketing site targeted towards newbies. Or a site directed towards new web masters..or hell, web designers– but not an SEO site directed towards slightly more seasoned SEO people. (odds are they already have it)
If people are reading this– they have websites already thus they probably aren’t looking to switch hosting. And just about any hosting with C-Panel will give you a 1 click wordpress install.
SoloSEO went wild about a year ago, thus most SEOs already know it.
I think perhaps if you had targeted interesting products that would help SEOs understand PPC or Usability and making conversions you’d have had better success.
I feel your pain Tad. I haven’t sold a thing on my site since I started with the affiliate ads. Nothing. I advertise SEO book, and a few others, but no one’s interested. I don’t want to put Adsense on there. I guess like you most of my readers are probably fairly savvy blogger site owner types who don’t click ads. I think finding someone to advertise on my site for a set price each month is the way forward. I have over 100 rss readers, 6000-8000 visitors a month, the question is how much do you charge for a certain space. I don’t want to undersell. P.s. I read your articles because you are funny, informative, and you always share you thoughts and stats, like in this article, even if it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. Don’t get too discouraged, your stuff is great!
I think he needs to re-price point to around $19.95 (not great for affiliates I know) after all this information is mainly in the public domain (I guess) and people will only pay a certain amount for ebooks on gathered info these days. I buy a lot of IM products and ebooks and I’ve thought about his book..price stops me though, if he re priced at $19.95 I think he’d have more success!
Why by books when you can read SEO 2.0 for free!!!! Books / products like these don’t sell, because they add no unique information (it’s just rephrased and reworded). All the information in that book is already widely available on the internet. Secondly, not many people are interested in SEO, and those who are already know what’s going on.
Thanks everybody for the explanations offered, the kind words and the ideas added. I guess all of you are right, basically there are many reasons why the SEO book does not sell, but what about the other products? I am not sure about those. The Search Marketing Standard e.g., I wonder if everybody already has subscribed or what?
Selling SEO products (guides, ebooks etc) seems to be a difficult business model to sustain or succeed with.
It seems more logical to create free tools, provide free guides etc etc that give the reader a taste of your expertise - and capture email addresses or visitor forms.
I’m thinking out loud a bit here - but if your conversion tracking is solid, you could then use the information derived for prospecting consulting clients.
Honestly, the idea of an industry magazine holds no appeal to me. We are an industry of blogs and bloggers– do we really need a monthly of quarterly magazine? Does it offer any real value? Anything I can’t pick up from somewhere else?
I sold a SEO book but I still need work for traffic :)
Bloggers (your blog is read mostly by other bloggers) are cheap and those making the big bucks don’t read/need this.
This is the sad truth. The only way to make money is with subaffiliates but the chances to sell them anything are really low.
And they never click ads!
I’ll make a post on this to explain a bit better by tomorrow.
By the way … check out my new post.
It seems you describe yourself there, you don’t give away links either… at least not “real” ones.
Thanks anyways for mentioning me :-)
I said I’m not a blogger :) Anyway not in the regular sense of the word.
And I do as everyone should. Build some strength on site and then enable links.
All links are stored in database and will be enabled as soon as the site puts on some muscles :)
PS: I don’t comment for links. I just put on a link when there’s something relevant on my site. I never even look if one has / does not have nofollow enabled.
When John Chow posted about SEO Book he sold many copies of it. Largely because his review did not look or feel like an ad.
Most of my top selling affiliates integrate the ads into the content area and provide it as more than an ad.
I am a big fan of editorializing ads to add value to them. If you are advertising something tell me why I should be interested in it instead of just sending me over to a salesletter…like talk about your experiences with the product and why you value it. Link the ads to that page and then link out to the affiliate product from that page.
The smaller each step of commitment or blind transfer of trust is the higher the conversion rate should be. I believe that is one key, and the stuff PaymentBlogger said was spot on as well.
Hello Aaron,
thank you for taking the time to comment on my blog personally. Indeed I wrote an article introducing the SEO Book and the other products so I’m with you on that. It’s rather what the others said: I preach to the converted as my readers are mostly beyond the SEO Book like myself or own it by now.
“Nobody is interested in SEO, people read my blog because I’m so funny”
Well, the last part anyway. ;)
I think maybe the comment about putting up a free tool might be your best bet.
Well, don’t ask me about Aaron Wall.. :-(
Bought his product. It wasn’t what I expected. Knew most of the relevant stuff already & the rest was just padding. I tried for THREE MONTHS to get a refund & he just ignored my e-mails.I still haven’t got a refund.
Maybe if you’re going to try be an affiliate,
1.do so for products which stick to their guarantees for starters, (i.e. have integrity); and
2.products which tell people something they don’t already know….
People are probably onto Aaron Wall’s gig already… hence your lack lustre sales. He’s probably been been relegated to status of white noise already.. people just zone it out.
Just my view. Good luck.
I thought the book was excellent. It was well written and well put together with lots of links and sources.
I think it’s kind of funny that you read a book and then want a refund after, that’s kind of absurd.
I don’t know how the author of this post expects to sell an SEO book to people coming from Stumbleupon, that’s just funny.
I have read his book. For myself, I don’t see anything I do not know before. For people who already know SEO, its really no point in getting the book.
However, for complete beginnners, its a good introduction, and its updated.
So I recommend it for beginnners but not for those who is already in SEO
Don’t get me wrong, I think there is nothing wrong with this ebook. The SEO pro is clearly not the market though. Intermediate users still can benefit from it.
So if you’re a normal webmaster get it.
Hi Bee
If you want to get a refund please email me…I give them the same day in most cases (with the rare exception of when I can’t find out who ordered it - many of the people who ask for refunds use an email not connected to their paypal account, without giving their name, and then take a bit to get back to me with their account details when I ask for them)
the SEO book….
Please call me. 310-589-2200
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