Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing
If you're looking at affiliate marketing in hopes of creating a profitable business I congratulate you! The benefits outweigh the risks.
For example, there's no product to create, no inventory to maintain or customers to deal with and the investment is less than eating out at your favorite restaurant.
In this lesson we'll discuss how to get started, The hardest part will be putting thought and research into what you want to promote and the products you choose to affiliate with, however I'll help guide you through the steps and you're welcome to ask questions.
Find a Profitable Niche
It all starts with finding the right niche, this is how you will compete against the big guys and more competitive sites. By the right niche I mean a profitable niche that is tightly focused.
For example, if you like the topic 'weight loss', you'll have to get more specific. A site about 'over 40 weight loss' or 'post partum weight loss' are niches that are highly focused. They target in on exactly what someone may be looking for. This helps your site stand out above all the weight loss sites that cover everything and don't cater to specific areas of interest.
Start with What Interests You
Your chosen niche doesn't have to be a great passion as you may have heard. It's ok to simply go with something that you like or have a general interest in, the idea is to go with something that holds your interest and can be profitable for you.
Start by looking around and finding out what people are doing and buying. Think about what interests people the most.
What People Spend Their Money On...
Money - People spend money on finding out how to make more money or save money.
Beauty - People spend billions on looking better, younger.
Recreation - People spend a huge percentage of their disposable income on their hobbies, sports and relaxation.
Health - People will spend money to learn how to overcome illness, live longer, avoid pain or simply feel better.
Love - People willingly spend huge amounts of money on dating, candy, diamonds, flowers and cards.
Once you decide on a profitable niche, sit down and draw up an old fashioned outline. You know like the ones you made in high school. Break your niche down into categories and decide what you want to discuss for each category. This is going to help you organize and categorize your website which is what we'll be discussing next.
A Good Example of a Bad Example
Something I did a few years ago to help me capitalize on popular niches was to look at ebay. Now I'm not a big fan of eBay but I know there's money to be made there. So in an effort to see if I could make some extra cash I came across an application called "Build a Niche Site". I even wrote a case study. I created that site over a year ago and today the site still earns me a monthly income, a nice tribute to the product, however, my mistake was choosing a niche that is not focused enough.
The site is a generic 'guitar' site - not ideal for a niche, in fact it's not really a niche at all. The site would do much better if I were to focus it on a specific type of guitar, something like Gibson or Fender. I could narrow it down even further to a brand of acoustic or electric guitar.
I like to use this site as an example of what not to do when choosing a niche, but one day I hope get around to changing it ;-)
In Summary...
There are volumes written on how to find the most profitable niches. My suggestion is don't get so hung up on it that it paralyzes you. There's not much you will find that is without competition, but find a way to narrow it as much as possible by finding a specialized focus.
Here's a free nichefinder guide you can use to help spark ideas. It will also help you determine if the niche you're thinking about is truly a profitable one.
Your Partner
In Success
Elizabeth
