Are smaller niches in Clickbank better to promote or larger ones?

I have heard conflicting ideas on what niches to promote in Clickbank. One ebook states go with the more popular ones and develop highly targeted keyword campaigns and another says focus on smaller less competitive ones for better results. Anyone have any thoughts on which approach is better?
I know we all want to protect our competitive space so any advice would be helpful.
Thanks,
Ather

 

The truth is, depending on how you like to play the game, you can have success both ways.

Let's look at a few of the +'s and -'s of big/small niches:

Popular niches + highly refined keywords:

PROS:
- lots of demand for the product (you know the product will sell...)
- ability to tease out keywords that haven't been used before & make yourself a niche within a niche with good popularity.
- lower costs for adwords ads if there's less competition
- ability to 'spy' on the competition to see their strategies & tactics

CONS:
- You may end up paying more for adwords ads if there is competition, or if you can't find keywords unique enough to differentiate yourself from others
- More competition in general may make it harder to be individually purchased from
- Audience may be less willing to accept a smaller affiliate/vendor's review/product.



Smaller Niche + basic keywords

PROS:
- Less competition, lower adwords bids
- Able to more easily test the waters without having to build up a refined & competitive campaign
- Potential for easier massive sales if your product really connects with your niche audience
- Easier mobility to shift campaign focus or wording; less research required in terms of competition
- Ability to gain knowledge ahead of the crowd & be well established when it comes.

CONS:
- Less confidence about the product's saleability.
- Less confidence about the product's potential return rate.
- Less chance to look at others in the niche and learn from their adcopy/lander/etc.


So you see, in a way, they're kind of the same. Either you go into a stable, known big niche and hollow out your own niche within it as a result of specific/refined keywords, or you go into a lesser-known small niche and drive results that way.

My advice: in the end, it doesn't matter - go for where you feel you can get in the door & make some sales. Smaller niches can be super fun, but then the competition hits and it can get frustrating having to defend an area where you previously had free run.

I personally think hollowing out a spot in a medium-sized niche is a lot of fun - watch other vendors come and go, learn from them, and build your campaign to succeed over the top of them

-T

 

Hi Telmari,
Thanks a bunch for outlining the PROS and CONS. I tried the big niche markets and lost my shirt bidding on highly targeted high priced keywords. I could try to build a niche within a niche...good advice.
I haven't tried smaller niches so that sounds more like a "next step" and compare results.
Cheers,
Ather

 

Don't read to many books... It depend of yourself. I personaly prefer to go where the money is. Where it has been proved that people buy.

 

Yeah, it's easy to lose bunches of cash by bidding on high priced words. Generally, unless you know you're going to make it back, the best idea is that if a keyword is too high priced, it's time to find a syntactically similar keyword/phrase.