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1000 organic users per month but still no revenue.

My site finally broke 1000 users per month without paying for any traffic. 80% of the traffic came from organic search, 11% was direct, and the rest came from social media. I am currently part of 3 different affiliate programs and drive clicks to affiliate links at a conversion rate of around 10% but none of the clicks have converted. I think this due to the long lead time on snowboard and ski purchases, but I thought I would have had a few conversions by now.

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    I had no idea what your business was at first, but happen to be looking for new snowboard bindings and don't really know what to buy. I do like the simple vibe of the site. I like it more than if the UI was really polished.

    2020 is kind of a weird year for buying ski/snowboard equipment. It might be a good opportunity to target split boards or backcountry since people are trying those as an alternative to resorts.

    I think the monetization will eventually come, as long as you are building something people actually want. Keep at it!

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      You could also try featuring more indie brands and add a question about brand preference. These might have better conversion. I've ridden a Zion in the past and would be fun to discover a new brand

      https://www.reddyyeti.com/blog/best-snowboard-brands-25-best-snowboard-brands-youve-never-heard-of

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        Thanks for the response @PeterM. I agree that it would be good to post some splitboard related content, It's on my list of things to do once I finish up school this semester.

        I have looked into adding some lesser-known brands, but have run into the problem that they generally do not provide as much info about their boards on their websites. This means I would have to try to infer data about their products then enter it manually instead of webscraping it. Although, in the future, I would like to work with smaller brands directly to list their products.

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    Great work on what you've done so far. But I have to say, the name and branding are confusing and don't really feel like the sort of thing I'd trust with a purchase. Nobody likes hearing that the name they picked is a bad one (I learned this lesson the hard way) but it's something you should strongly consider.

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      It's a small niche within the ski/snowboard community that will understand what the name means. but it could be that is the target niche and it will work out OK

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        Yes that's the goal!

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          love the part about race skis never hahaha!!!

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    Great job setting it up and getting traffic - that's huge.

    I'm sorry but I think a little honest feedback would be great for learnings, please take it with a pinch of salt. I also started in the same place at first.

    1. The name NoseButtr - I can't relate to ski/snowboard at all (I snowboarded myself, just on vacations).
    2. Your website needs better design, find a UI designer to help. Right now it looks like a high school project.
    3. I see a lot of static and flying butter, why? I thought you sell ski/snowboard, show them to me
    4. A website needs to do a few things well: 1) gives me a good 1st impression, 2) clear what it does, show the value, 3) social proof - show that you're legit. You need to work on your website structure as well

    You can take a look at some of the platforms you enjoy and learn from their "good" parts. Getting traffic at this point is not meaningful for you because you cannot convert any of them. Let's get your fundamentals strong then go to traffic acquisition next.

    Also reading from analytics also doesn't help you much. Show a few strangers (not friends) and tell them to be honest, watch them navigate your site and ask them to explain what is on their mind. Think you'll learn a lot from doing this :)

    Hope this is helpful!

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      Thanks @kevon,

      Regarding your first point, as mentioned in a comment by @Rzehrskate

      It's a small niche within the ski/snowboard community that will understand what the name means. but it could be that is the target niche and it will work out OK
      The name is based on a skiing and snowboarding trick called a "nose butter". Correct me if I'm wrong, but my guess is that your experience with snowboarding on vacation has been with rented gear.

      I agree that the UI could use some work. My main focus has been on ensuring the website functions appropriately as it is my first time building a site from the ground up.

      The flying butter is related to the name pun "nose butter"

      Can you explain what you mean by working on the website structure?

      I have been recording user sessions with FullStory and watching them back to understand how users are interacting with the site as well as getting feedback from people I know whenever possible. From what I've seen the website is very effective at "converting" the traffic (I consider a link to a site that actually sells the snowboard a conversion). The site converts 18-20% and many of them click multiple outbound snowboard links per session of users but only 5%-10% of the links clicked are affiliate links. The affiliate program that the majority of companies in my space use is highly selective and has high traffic requirements for acceptance, hence my focus on traffic.

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    Hey @jaen have you looked into the conversion rate between the number of visitors who come onto your website and click on the quiz?

    Maybe you could consider improving the design and experience of your website.

    The yellow on the website is a bit much, how about making the more white (matching with the snow) with minimal colours. Also why not bring the quiz to the homepage? So rather than clicking the quiz button, the visitors can see the quiz in the second section and start answering the questions.

    How about tackling it from another honestly reviewing or collecting review and organising them for visitors to read and make a better informed decision on their purchase?

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      Here's the breakdown by landing page:

      -home page: 56.7% start the quiz

      -snowboard size calculator: 24% start the quiz

      -What snowboard should I get quiz SEO page: 92.7% start the quiz

      -Best snowboard 2021 SEO page: 2.3% start the quiz (But a high percentage of users click on an affiliate link)

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        The conversions all look good. Have you tried experimenting with the messaging? At first I didn't think too much about messaging but I realised, tweaking the messaging to make it better does bring a big positive change to the website and the way people understand what we are offering.

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    I don't know what you're exactly doing, but here's the thing if you're working with SEO like me.
    Try just to optimize for keywords that drive conversions.
    Secondly I guess you need to optimize a little bit for the theme.
    Wish you all the best !

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    time to optimize! what are you going to experiment with next?

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    I'm wondering if you've considered incorporating some social proof into your landing? For example, adding some testimonials from users, but since you're starting out, you could try adding some metrics like "[num] users took the quiz" or something like that. Usually when websites struggle with conversions, adding some social proof might be more likely to convert the first few users.

    It might help conversions somewhat for you, hope that might be useful! Otherwise, congrats for getting such great traffic; targeting long-tail keywords with low difficulty seems like a great strategy overall.

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      Thanks for the response Silvi. The site actually has a pretty good conversion rate in terms of getting users to click outbound to a specific snowboard or pair of skis. 18%-20% of visitors click one of my outbound links(not all of which are affiliate links). I think the problem is that they are not completing the purchase right away if at all so I don't receive credit for the sale if it occurs. My goal is to start signing deals directly with ski and snowboard manufacturers so I don't have to worry about lead times on the conversions.

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    what was your SEO strategy for getting all that organic search traffic?

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      There are 2 techniques that I have had success with:

      1. Building specific tools and pages that target low difficulty long-tail keywords.

      -I noticed that a lot of people were searching for "snowboard size calculator" so I built a snowboard size calculator that I think is better than other options. I also made sure the size calculator funneled users into my main "product" the snowboard match quiz.

      -I also found that people were commonly searching for: "what snowboard should I get quiz" so I made a page dedicated to targeting this keyword. It now ranks 1st for the keyword.

      1. Writing content optimized for searches I knew would become popular in my niche.

      In my niche (snowboarding and skiing) brands release new gear for each year. So I looked up what searches were popular for last years gear(for example "best snowboard 2020") and created new pages targeting similar terms for the newest gear(for example "best snowboard 2021"). I made sure to post these pages as soon as possible so there would not be much initial competition.

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        Thanks for sharing this! I've been focusing a lot on SEO lately for a couple knitting-related blogs. I have a sock pattern generator/calculator that ranks in the top 3 on Google for a couple keywords, but I completely forgot about linking back to either of those two blogs. 😒So thanks for the reminder to add that backlink. 😂

        And congratulations on all that organic traffic!

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        Wow. I love it! It's so cool when SEO works.

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