In my previous guest post here, I told you to stop trying to make money online until you reach the point where you actually have something to make money from. And by that I meant, until you have a great site with a nice size audience and a good amount of consistent traffic, focusing on making money tends to just be a counterproductive waste of time.
But then, what happens when you actually DO reach that point? When you do have the great site with the audience and the traffic, and you truly do have something capable of making money? Well, that’s a subject I’m not going to bother with here because – hello – you’re on John Chow’s blog. The dude has written 8 million posts about the many different ways you can monetize your site. No point in me adding anything there.
Instead, I’m going to tell you how to make MORE money once you reach this point. And not only that, but I’m going to guarantee that you can.
Yup, I said “guarantee,” and I mean it. Assuming you have some decent amount of traffic to your site(s), I guarantee that you are in some way missing out on some amount of money that you could very easily be making. And it doesn’t matter how much you’re already making. There is still additional money to be made, and all you need to do to make it is find it. How? Simple. By testing. Testing what? Everything. Yes, literally.
Test EVERYTHING
The things that aren’t working at all? Test them. The things that are working poorly? Test them too. The things that are working just fine? Test them anyway. The things that you are so sure are working as perfectly as they can possibly work and can’t be improved any further? Test them especially.
Why? Because somewhere in there, somewhere on your site, there’s going to be something that you are going to test that is instantly going to lead to more money being made. I guarantee it.
How do I know this? How can I be so sure? Because it’s been happening to me for about a decade now. I never cease to be amazed at how many times testing results in some seemingly insignificant change that instantly leads to me making more money. How much more? Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Who cares. Either way, it leads to MORE money.
How I Went From $1,000 a Month To $10,000
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how I increased my monthly AdSense revenue from $1,000 per month to $10,000 per month a few years back as a result of nothing but testing. I played around with different ad placements and sizes and colors and combinations and other optimization related things. There was no change in traffic whatsoever. All I did was test. And then, when things improved, I just kept testing. The result? Things just kept improving.
What basically happened was I created an AdSense account, picked ad placements/sizes/colors that I thought would perform well, and went with it. I was then making $1,000 per month and figured that’s probably as good as this can ever be. No room for improvement there, I figured. A few months passed and I finally started to wonder if I was wrong. Maybe it could be better? So, I started testing everything.
The next thing you know, my AdSense earnings grew to $3,000 for the month. My first thought? “This is awesome, but this is probably as good as it can be.” Fortunately, I ignored that thought and kept testing anyway. Next thing you know, I hit $6,000 for the month. The same thought entered my head. “Awesome! But now THIS is definitely as good as it can ever be.” And again, I ignored that thought and kept on testing.
Next thing you know, this one site is making $10,000 per month thanks to nothing but my continual (bordering on obsessive) testing of every single thing I could possibly test.
How Much Are You Losing By Not Testing?
Now, imagine what would have happened if I didn’t test. Seriously. Think about it. I would have been making $1,000 per month without ever realizing that it could have been $10,000. I would have been happy with my $12,000 of yearly AdSense revenue and never would’ve known that I could have just as easily been making $120,000 per year instead if I just did the testing needed to show me that it was actually possible.
Luckily for me, I did this testing. But what if I didn’t? That’s a $9,000 per month difference that I would have missed out on. If that thought alone doesn’t scare you into testing everything on your site that you possibly can, I don’t know what will.
But Wait, There’s More!
I started selling a product on a site of mine not too long ago for a price of $25. After doing some very basic testing of my landing page and how I funneled people to that landing page, I ended up averaging about 5 sales per day. At $25 a sale, that’s $125 a day ($3,750 per month). Sounds pretty good, right?
The thing is, I realized a little while later that there was one thing I never really got around to testing. That $25 price.
I came up with that price based on two things. First, it’s a good, fair price. Second, I found that similar products were typically priced between $25-$50, and I like being the guy selling the most value for the lowest price. So, 25 bucks it was, and 25 bucks it stayed.
That was until a thought entered my head. What would happen if I lowered the price to $20? I’d lose $5 per sale, but who knows. So, I tested.
And wouldn’t you know, my sales per day instantly doubled. Instead of 5 sales per day when the price was $25, I was now averaging 10 sales per day at $20. Meaning, lowering my (already low) price by just $5 instantly caused a $75 per day increase in revenue (an extra $2,250 per month). Surprised? I was too.
Now for the same scary question I asked before: what if I never tested? What if I just left the price at $25 and focused more on landing page optimization and marketing? I would have missed out on the easiest additional $75 per day I have ever made. Now instead of making $3,750 per month, I’m making $6,000. All it took was a $5 decrease in price, and all that took was some testing to let me know it was possible.
What’s that? You’re wondering if my sales per day would increase even further if I lowered the price even more? I’m wondering that too, and you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to test and find out.
These are just 2 examples, but I could keep going and going. The moral here is quite simple. Test everything. No matter how well it appears to be working (or not working) or how insignificant it may seem at the time… test it! I guarantee that you’ll find something on your site that can be improved in some way that will instantly lead to more money being made. It’s staring you right in the face just waiting to be tested and found. You just need to test it and find it.
Now, the difference might not be quite as significant as going from say $1,000 per month to $10,000 per month in AdSense revenue or even making an extra $75 per day in product sales. But then again… maybe it could.
The above post was guest blogged by Create. Market. Profit.