Forum Moderators: skibum
Is finding a small niche for affiliate marketing profitable?
Generally not, but it depends. Not to be rude, but those who look for little "niches" are afraid of risk, and the time necessary to put into making affiliate marketing really work. If making huge amounts of money in affiliate marketing is not important to you, or not your thing, then disregard my previous sentence.
Let me explain. It is exceedingly hard to wring any sizeable amount of profit with little niches. You would need either:
1. Hundreds of these such websites, or
2. Thousands of uniques per day to one website
So, if you have a well established website that you've built up in an area you are interested in, then and only then are niche affiliate programs viable for you.
For those who want to make the really big bucks, in a shorter amount of time, listen up:
You don't start up a little dinky website about something you're interested in and then paste some random affiliate links on it. Not going to work. Period. Unless you want to wait 5 years to be an authority in your field that is, and that is not making it big, fast.
To make it big in affiliate marketing in a quick manner, you need:
1. A lust for success
2. Good work ethic
3. Neverending persistence
4. A belief you will succeed
5. A sizeable budget
So, what are some affiliate programs you can succeed with? Look for high volume needs of the general public. Big volume "niches" provide opportunity for big volume profits. Some may shy away from such opportunity because, "There is too much competition in those fields already...WAH! Cry me a river. There's so much competition in those "niches" already because They Are Profitable! Jump in, get your feet wet, stop being a baby ;)
Examples:
1. Finance
2. Legal
3. Gambling
4. Dieting
5. Electronics (look for good payouts)
6. Any program requiring a form to be filled out
Let me just say one thing though....it's all good and well to want to make huge amounts of money....but you need to bring some skills to the table. Any old Joe can't just fire up the computer and start racking in money from affiliate programs.
This leads back to passion and persistence. If you are passionate about improving your life situation, you will take the time necessary to submerge yourself in the studying of how affiilate programs work, and how you make them profitable. I would never suggest having to buy anything to learn the art of affiliate marketing. There is more than enough free information online to get you off to a great start. Read, read and read some more! Forums, articles, guides, and on and on. Good luck!
Remember, these are only my opinions, but I know what's worked for me through 5 years of affiliate marketing. Again, this "guide" is for those who want to make it big in affiliate marketing, and not for those who want to build a small website about something they are interested in. Interest in the subject is not necessary to make huge sums of money...enough of me.
Dave.
I'd like to point out that there are still a lot of areas out there that are simply not that competitive yet still have a lot of consumer volume. Finding them is just a matter of keeping your eyes open.
Also, there are a few affiliates out there that I have heard of with over a hundred individual websites that produce decent levels of income each. In the aggregate, I'm talking millions of dollars in commissions per year. So that's an option, but it requires a different type of website with less content, and a large PPC budget.
Make it so!
I am green with envy (funny, right?).... I mean making millions of $$$ is exactly what we are all here for.
I guess the million dollars question is how to turn those visitors into $$$$$$.
I have tried the PPC route and found that I was basically buying $20 by paying Google and MSN $50 for the visitors.... So now I am playing the SEO game and hoping for the best.
So please, shed some light here on how to make the PPC game work, I would appreciate it and am sure everybvody else too....
My current site has great traffic, tons of pages and pageviews, but it's not in a niche that pays well. (I didn't create with with affiliate marketing in mind).
I've begun creating a site that targets one of the big-money niches you mentioned. I realize I'll have competition in the search engines, but my current site is first-page for hundreds of competitive terms.
If you're willing to discuss PPC strategies more in depth, though, I'd also like to hear about it.
I think there are a whole janitor's key chain worth of keys needed to make a PPC campaign successful. There are complete books about it (i.e. Winning Results with Google Adwords by Andrew Goodman - a must read). It's a science. I've been successful with PPC and so I'll add my 2 cents to any specific questions posted here.
One thing I've learned is that no two campaigns are alike. The keyword possibilities for some niches span a much greater range than for others. For example, consider online dating. The keyword possibilities here are nearly endless. Some affiliates promoting online dating have been known to have several hundred thousand keywords in their lists. Contrast that with a physical product like washing machines. The list of profitable keywords that you can associate with specific washing machines is only so long. Optimizing PPC campaigns for these two niches is going to be quite different.
So, what are some affiliate programs you can succeed with? Look for high volume needs of the general public. Big volume "niches" provide opportunity for big volume profits. Some may shy away from such opportunity because, "There is too much competition in those fields already...WAH! Cry me a river. There's so much competition in those "niches" already because They Are Profitable! Jump in, get your feet wet, stop being a baby ;)
Another advantage with these "saturated" markets is that you don't have to be on page one or two of the search results.
Even in small niche markets, you may have to fight tooth and nail to get a good, top position. But, a top position is only useful if someone is actually looking for you. With a small niche, people may not be looking for you everyday.
On the other hand, the saturated markets are so full of junk that people will actually look beyond page two in order to find a decent web site. A place on page one would certainly be nice, but you can still make money being on pages 3, 4 or 5 or more. The traffic is so much higher that you could do better in a saturated market with a web site on page 5 then in a small niche with your web site in the #1 position.
On second thought, though, I think davewray is completely off-base. Certain markets are too saturated and you cannot make good money in them. Avoid them. Stay away. Stick with your tiny niche markets. Thanks.
Do you believe it is still (May 2007) possible to enter a very competitive market, start small,with a small budget and hit it big?
Every body here claims to make good money, but what is good money? Is it just making a profit? or is it a real nice chunck of dough.
Is it 4 figures a year? 5 figures a year? 6 figures a year? dare I say 7 figures a year?
For me anything below 5 figures a year is not considered good moeny.
Any thoughts?
I have a question: What is good money?
I do this stuff full time, and 5 figures annually wouldn't be in the range of "good money" for me... reaching into the 6 figures is not too difficult if you put your efforts in the right places.
And no, it's not too late to get into the game, even in competitive markets.
Before this internet thing dries up, should have made enough & invested in a risk free portfolio that generates 7 fig cash flow :) ...So Good money is atleast 10 Million after Tax!.
For 90% or more of the population in the US, that's not "fairly good money," it's great money.
What matters is do you have the skill sets to make money i.e. generate more revenue from your traffic than what it costs you to get the traffic!
I always tell my friends... enter a big market.. there's more cracks to put yourself into... there's more bread crums falling for a big pie rather than a small pie....I would not even enter a market if I think it can't make at least $10k/month... with some work... otherwise its a waste of time...
anyways... maybe I'm too optimistic.. but it seems to me that every niche or every market has a good chance of having an unlimited number of keywords to try... but then again.. if its a specific product there's only so much of it...
