Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:14 am Post subject: niche to choose
All I need some help with this,
Is it better to choose a niche that may be:
A: Very small, maybe less then 500 targeted searches a month, with absolutely no targeted competition, and only have a general personal interest in (something to day dream about), but no real experience with. The ability to monetize this is there, but only about $20 per confirmed sale, and takes a bit to discover. I do believe that if people knew that this existed (through marketing and thus expense) there would be a bigger market available.
B: A HUGE area, which has a lot of keyword searches, and a LOT of competition, but I have a lot of experience, knowledge, and interest in, and feel that I could really help people with. The ability to monetize this is a no brainer, so many ways it's hard to really choose which are really worth using.
This is my first attempt at building a business much less an affiliate/internet based business, and any advice on how to chose which area may be better to go into would be great, and will be truly appreciated.
Thanks so much for any advise given, I'm really at that point of not knowing which to go with. I know at some point I will do both of them. Of course that's if I can see that there is a future in affiliate marketing for me.
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5783 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:07 am Post subject: Re: niche to choose
DebtFreeMe wrote:
Very small, maybe less then 500 targeted searches a month, with absolutely no targeted competition, and only have a general personal interest in (something to day dream about), but no real experience with.
500 per month is VERY small, but the "absolutely no targeted competition" makes this sound very tempting, especially if this is just for a hobby site and you're regarding this project as your way of learning about affiliate marketing.
If it REALLY has so little traffic, you'd probably generate little revenue from it, even if you started a newsletter and captured email addresses.
Let's say you could totally dominate this little niche and eventually attract nearly all the traffic - say 400 visitors a month. Let's be optimistic and say that, by having a newsletter and earning their trust, you manage to sell a product to 5% of your visitors. That would be 20 sales x $20 = $400 in commissions a month. If you doubled that to 10%, you'd earn $800 a month. That's probably far too optimistic, especially for a beginner to affiliate marketing. Selling to 1% of them and earning $80 a month might be more realistic.
If these 500 people a month were desperate for the product you were promoting, this would improve the picture. We need to know more than numbers.
For a first website, it would be very satisfying targeting this non-competitive area and quickly getting very good rankings in search engines. It would be a wonderful way for a beginner to learn, because so many new affiliates start projects and then abandon them when they find everything takes much longer and is harder than they expected. With a non-competitive area, you shouldn't face this problem.
You'd probably find that the more deeply you explored this topic, the more interested you'd become in it.
Also, once you delved deeper into this niche, I suspect you'd more than likely discover more related keywords and more ways to monetize the traffic, and discover that the niche is really larger than you think.
Quote:
The ability to monetize this is there, but only about $20 per confirmed sale...
I reckon $20 per sale is attractive. Also, if there's an affiliate product, perhaps there's also a magazine and books on the topic, which you could promote? And if those people are interested in this product, perhaps you can find a related product they'd also buy.
Quote:
A HUGE area, which has a lot of keyword searches, and a LOT of competition, but I have a lot of experience, knowledge, and interest in, and feel that I could really help people with.
Big traffic, lots of interest and knowledge - that's a very powerful combination.
Can you carve off a little sub-niche, specialize in it and position yourself as an expert in this sub-niche? (You could always expand outwards from the sub-niche later.) Perhaps there's a sub-niche which isn't so fiercely competitive? If so, go for it - as long as you are prepared to put in a lot of time and hard work.
After a certain amount a research, you have to trust your instincts.
Try this... Imagine you've done all your research and made a decision and chosen option A. Picture yourself sitting at your desk researching and writing articles on this topic. Picture yourself telling your best friend about it. How do you feel? Are you getting satisfaction from what you're doing?
Now do the same for option B. How do you feel?
It could be that you already actually know which option would be best for you.
I hope that helps more than it confuses. _________________ Allan Gardyne
... earning a good living from affiliate programs since 1998.
Learn how.
Subscribe now FREE Affiliate Program Tutorial
First off I want to thank you so much for the great advice, and this wonderful resource Mr. Gardyne.
I was thinking of other key words last night for the niche with no competition, and thought of some other monetization models for it also.
I think your probably right that the niche may be bigger then expected given the number of semi-related sites. Also those that are involved in this niche seem to be very interested in it, and willing to spend quite a bit of time and money on it.
I do think in my case it may be better for me to go after an area that I can see a real chance of scoring well in and learning this business, even if I only make a little bit of money. I'll go after the big niche later when I'm better armed to do well.
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5783 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:52 am Post subject:
DebtFreeMe wrote:
Wow,
First off I want to thank you so much for the great advice, and this wonderful resource Mr. Gardyne.
You're welcome. Tell your friends.
Quote:
I think your probably right that the niche may be bigger then expected given the number of semi-related sites.
If you haven't already, you could test this by doing some very quick, rough keyword research using the free Google keyword tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal - which can show you "Additional keywords to be considered - sorted by relevance". It works better for some niches than others. You may be lucky.
Quote:
Also those that are involved in this niche seem to be very interested in it, and willing to spend quite a bit of time and money on it.
Well, that's a seriously useful clue!
Quote:
I do think in my case it may be better for me to go after an area that I can see a real chance of scoring well in and learning this business, even if I only make a little bit of money.
Sounds like a wise decision to me. Will you return and give us a progress report when you've earned your first dollar? That's the hardest one. _________________ Allan Gardyne
... earning a good living from affiliate programs since 1998.
Learn how.
Subscribe now FREE Affiliate Program Tutorial
Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 52 Location: http://www.MarketLeverage.com
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:18 pm Post subject:
I recommend a smaller niche over a larger niche site. If you use a popular niche you are going to have too much competition.
If you choose a smaller niche you will have the opportunity to stand out in a smaller crowd.
The best thing you can do is test, test and re-test! _________________ www.MarketLeverage60milewalk.com - Affiliate Marketers Giving Back for Breast Cancer
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