Why the hell doesn't my site convert?

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crossfittn

crossfittn

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Feb 4, 2007
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Review Or Trash My Site... What would you do?

Hey guys, I have been working slowly on PhenForum for 2 years.
It's finally doing quite well in the SERPS and has 5-7k uniques daily.

I am monetizing it in two ways:

1. Affiliate sales of supplements (main income)

2. My own online diet program like ediets + traineo (recurring $9.95/mo)
-For more info, see my video tutorials

Now, obviously I'm happy to have income from affiliate sales,
but I really want the recurring memberships.

It's been a few months and I still only have about 60 customers! That's terrible!
I have tried MSN and AdBrite and there wasn't traffic on MSN, and Adbrite
had plenty but didn't convert well.


Do you think I was a dumbass for creating a product to be used along with
Phentermine to help people lose weight permanently?

What would you do to make money off of this weight loss program?
Would you copy the application to another site not related to Phentermine,
and just start over?

I have never been one to give up, but maybe I'm crazy to keep trying on this project.

What would you do?

 


Off Topic, but I found it funny that you nicked the badges from EarnersForum

ten-posts.gif


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Very smooth ;)
 
why not make that forum a subscription based forum?

read Shoemoney's blog he talks about it there
 
Thanks for a reasonable response, Josh. It actually is subscription based. Three of the forums on there are members only. I use aMember to manage the subscriptions, and I highly recommend it.

MY question is - was I stupid for trying to sell a weight loss program to people who take a diet pill?
 
crossfittn said:
MY question is - was I stupid for trying to sell a weight loss program to people who take a diet pill?
Click to expand...

I highly doubt it. Sounds fucking genius to me. You already know that they are consumers for that market if they take a diet pill. You just have to convince them that the program works.

Why not try to get a contest or something going on your forums and have some of the most prolific posters try the weight loss program for a couple of months or something.

You're going to have to create your own buzz to get it off the ground, but once you do that, it should get easier.
 
Hey man, I'll write up a sales copy and maybe you could split test it to see how it works?

Maybe we can work something out? I'm curious as hell to see how it would do.
 
crossfittn said:
What would you do?
Click to expand...

this would be, what i would do:

I. change of subscription plan

a) bronze = free
b) silver = 4.99 / month (claim it will cost like 9.99 in 3 month)
c) gold = 9.99 / month (claim it will cost like 19.99 in 3 month)

for 3 new referred bronzes, a bronze member becomes silver. for 3 new referred bronze members that go silver, a silver referrer becomes gold.
divide whatever content you have amongst those groups, making it an incentive for others to get more members onto your site.

on top of that, pay like 9.99 for a referred silver member and 19.99 for a referred gold member. go totally viral so that those viral marketeers pick your program up and blast your offer out on their lists.

DON'T make any profit from this. spent all on prizes, incentives again.

II. change of scope

go for EVERYONE who wants a diet. pills, atkins, 10 healthy foods WHATEVER. why would you even bother to limit your scope for potential customers if you could have them all? sure, there are all kinds of diet philosophies on the market, but it is not that we would have heard of any diet-religious wars, right? people seeking to loose weight try a lot of ways, so why would you accompany them along only one of them?

III. get hot chicks

guys who want to lose weight do this for a reason: chicks. so, get hot chicks on board, that motivate the guys to lose weight. of course, at some stage those gals get nekkid (because otherwise no one would believe them that they lost so and so much weight).

well, for the ladies, you would have to get nekkid ;)

IV. go real life

now comes the hard part. the really hard part but i would assume this transition to be the burner: go local with phenforum-clubs. found local chapters, start franchising the idea and when you got this to the level of like 10 clubs, give me call so that i can buy myself into this with 50% ;)

i really think, to survive in this everchanging diet market, you need to come up with something really really original and at the same time you need to stay as much mainstream as possible to cover all the various types of diets in order to have the best customer coverage.
 
I. change of subscription plan

I like this! I'll try to set it up with iDevAffiliate.

II. change of scope

Fortunately, in our members area, we do offer guides for the most popular diets. I can't afford to integrate them into the diet tools like our meal planner though becuase of the dev costs.

III. Get hot chicks

I'll look into it. My friend's gf wants to do videos for it. I don't really want to work to attract guys much in this because the target market is like 95% women... Or is that stupid of me to do?

------------------

I just got an idea for a new project that will be geared specifically towards guys though. I've never seen anything like it and I know it works for me. :) hehehehe
 
crossfittn said:
I don't really want to work to attract guys much in this because the target market is like 95% women... Or is that stupid of me to do?
Click to expand...

naaah, not stupid. but you would limit your potential for no reason.

let's admit it: most guys 30+ are simply too fat. and they know it.

so, the question is, how to get them into a forum that deals with weightloss topics.
 
Thanks man. I think I'm going to start a new site just for guys. It's not phentermine related. It's revolutionary in a way. I'm going to try this being original thing.

Anyway, I might as well see what you guys think of my signup page. Users signup for free basic account and then I promote the paid right after. Click here to see the page that users see right after they sign up.

Is this page trash?
 
crossfittn said:
Is this page trash?
Click to expand...

well, i wouldn't say trash, but where i see room for improvement is the following:

- i would incorporate the 2.99 trial sign-up on the free sign up page as well, directly above the "continue sign-up"-button. (i would always instinctively click on any free trial for such a low amount, as everybody knows, that free offers are somehow twisted anyways. so, if prompted from the beginning with a chance to upgrade, i would click it).

- get the sign-up link for the 2.99 trial directly on top. it is hidden so far below that no one will scroll down there. also, don't try to smartass me, by telling me that my freebie account is worth nothing. i took time to read ths page so far, so if you are going to play funny with me here, i fucking close my browser (kidding, i hope you get what i mean: the comparison table is just to imbalanced. treat all sections the same with font size, use of bold fonts and such. the content speaks for itself. and in the end: you don'*t really want the 2.99. you want him to go gold in the next 30 days, so don't scare him away.)

generally: go large. increase font size. style web 2.0.

i am 30+, i need glasses, man :) maybe i need your offer but i can't read a fucking thing without scratching my nose on the screen of my laptop ;)
 
Thank you for giving me an excuse to have the site redesigned for usability!!!!!!! :) I thought that table was a little aggressive. I'll tone down the smartassing.

I have tried putting the 2.99 trial signup on the free page, but it didn't convert. I'll give it another try though since my traffic is way up now. Oh, and I'll add the signup link above. the account comparison table. Thanks for the advice!

EDIT:

Is it better now? Weight Loss Program
 
That's a foolproof idea, Brandon. I only have 2 success stories - here.

Is there a better way of getting success stories from my members than just asking them by email?
 
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