Dear friends, I am facing the typical "newbie" problem - the more I read, the more confused I get. I am aware no one would be willing to share their own "success secret", all I am asking is just for a direction where to start from. How to find the right niche - no matter whether I will do affiliate marketing or just a info website ? How to find the right product/website to satisfy consumers' needs ? I tried using keyword tools, but I simply don't get it. For example if 10000 people have searched for "dog shoes", does it mean they will do same search next month ? I don't think so ... Should I start with something I like, no matter of competition ? I just want to put in my motivation and dedication to smth. Please, desperately need an advice ...
HyperionD The first thing you need to do is to choose a marketplace to sell too, to do this start by looking at your own interests and hobbies! Then ask friends and family what their interests and hobbies are, to get ideas and topics to research. Once you have a list of topics / subjects you'll want to find out if the marketplace you've chosen: *Have money to spend on their hobbies and interests *Have a desire to buy (people generally don't have to be "talked" into spending money on their hobbies and interests) *Have an online presence (are easy to reach) *What the size of the market is? *Have a history of buying online (know how to purchase from the Internet) *Have a history of buying similar products to what you're planning to sell *How much they normally spend (whats they spending limit) *Where they normally buy from *How often they buy *Whats the current competition in the marketplace In simple terms you ask when, why, what and how! If you have chosen your own hobbies or interests you should already know the answer to some or most of the questions above because you are already part of that marketplace. And by choosing a topic on your own interests you should also have a good idea of: *What type of sales proposition they will respond to. *What makes them buy *Whats important to them *and how to effectively target them with your marketing efforts After selecting a marketplace you need to find out "what they want to buy" not what they need... "what they want to buy" then acquire or create the product they want and offer that product at a price point they're willing to pay! Again if you're part of that market - what do you want to buy for that particular hobby? If you're not part of the marketplace then you'll need to carry out some research to get your answers. Choosing the right market is key to success and if you are already knowledgeable in a certain subject then you have the upper hand on others that don't in that market. However there needs to be opportunities to make a profit, if there isn't then try another marketplace. Business is a long road to success and if you choose something you're interested in you'll be less likely to give up so quickly. Hope this helps, just to mention I have a membership site where the focus is on product creation - We cover choosing marketplaces, creating products, research, web development, marketing, you'll also find project ideas and examples, free downloads and more to help you get started in this business... I create products for a living and share all with members of the site. PM me or check out the site in my profile to contact me and I'll point you to some articles you'll want to read to help get you started. All the best Alex
Blessings and mercy of Almighty Allah be on you. dear brother, never desperate, be patience, if you want to start then clickbank marketplace is best for you. Just follow these steps. Sign up with Clickbank. Visit the clickbank marketplace and choose a product of your interest or you have some knowledge about that product. In start just choose the product with high gravity or popularity. Gain the hop link with your clickbank nickname to promote that product. When you have chosen a product the second thing, the whole secret is, how to promote it. To promote that product just register a domain name similar to that product's website and forward that domain name to your hop link. Now you have to promote your own domain name in stead of that typical hop link. There are so many ways to promote it, like this forum. yes you can promote that product in your signature. Similarly there are many free ways like groups, classifieds, yahoo answers, article writing etc. and other are paid advertisements like PPC and Banners. If you have a motivation and passion then get ready to promote your product and watch your clickbank earning increasing. I just hope that you will succeed. Best of luck.....
You need to work on the understanding of Internet Marketing behavioural change (yeah big words), check this post out - http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1714386#post13718519
you have to find out what people want.. find a product that you want to promote and find forums that are related to the product find out what they want what are they saying about the product..
One thing you can do is go through the 30 day challenge. It's a free course on how to make your first $1 online. Obviously you want to make more than $1, but you just build on all the skills you learn and keep growing and it's an awesome place to start. It's actually really cool and you will learn a lot from it. Everything from niche research to keyword research and SEO is covered. Completely free too. Just go here: http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/training/ and start from Day 1 and work through til the end. Try to only focus on the 30 day challenge too while you're learning it. If you keep bouncing around with different ideas and trying new methods without perfecting a single method, you will get nowhere.
I agree with J1218 about the 30 day challenge. It is a fine course and absolutely free, however the course does make use of certain tools such as Market Samurai and WordPress Direct. You will get a free trial to them for the duration of the course but if you wish to continue using them you would have to purchase. The only reservation I would have is that a novice should learn the basics and the reasons behind the actions that the tools perform before relying on them for important business decisions!
Yeah, you do need to use Market Samurai and Wordpress Direct for the challenge, but like you said, they are free so it isn't really a problem. The whole thing about the 30 DC is that you take the skills you learn from it and then expand upon them once you're done with the challenge. You really don't need to keep using the tools if you don't want to. I love Market Samurai and I have it myself, but I wasn't too impressed by WP Direct at all. I like using the normal WP dashboard and doing everything myself. As for learning the basics about the tools, they will help you with all of that too. They really designed the 30 DC to be as easy to follow for even the biggest noob to the internet.
Hyperion, you really have to narrow down your focus. It seems like you want to focus on affiliate marketing. If you truly want to build a long-term business marketing affiliate products, one of the most important things I think you should do as soon as possible is to start building a list. I know you probably have heard this many times before, but I cannot stress the importance of this if you want to make money consistently and repeatedly on the internet. Without a list you are just going to be a one-hit wonder, getting some income here and there whenever you promote something. You need to have a list that you build up a relationship with over time, and you also need to grow that list as time goes by. This is how you get to eventually be like the big Gurus who can literally push a button and print money on demand. This is the one thing that will generate you job-replacing income that is both big and consistent.
For most people it takes quite a few failures to learn the ropes. Keep learning about keyword research. Once you have a good handle on that then figure out a topic that you are interested in then look for an affiliate program around that topic. After that put together a bunch of keywords that aren't that competitive to target. Just understand that you need to learn a lot about SEO and keyword research. Most people only give basic information about it. So don't just take the first few articles as gospel. Read, read, and read more. While you're doing that try to start implementing the stuff you learn. You will learn more from your mistakes.
any suggestions on where to find good information on understanding keyword research? I've seen a lot programs and courses that gloss over it, or use generalities. I haven't found much that actually explains in detail how what to look for, and how you know you've found profitable, yet not too comptetive keywords, etc.
Here are a few pointers: 1. If you want to find niche markets, you must gather lots of information about your niche. You should know how much profit is there. You can utilize the info in breaking down the market according to the demographic profile or according to gender. For example if you choose weight loss, both men and women can relate to it equally well. However, if you choose bodybuilding, men will relate to it more than women. 2. If you choose a market that matches with your hobbies, it will become an ideal situation. This is because you will be an expert in that area. You’ll take more interest in nurturing it. 3. Experiences can be another factor that can decide your niche. For example if you were a successful forex trader, choosing to sell products related to forex will be ideal. You will be able to guide your customers with ease. 4. Experience as in learning lessons from life can also be turned into business ventures. If you went to Tibet to find meaning of life and feel content, then you can use that experience to find and sell related products or services. 5. How about going to websites like Clickbank and see what is selling? These sites have numerous products and you can do an analysis. 6. The social bookmarking sites are in great demand. They help the internet marketers to not only grow their business but also find right kind of customers. Twitter is one such site that offers a huge platform for small businesses. Here you can take a look at what clients are really looking for and what they are following. This will help you determine, especially if you are in a dilemma. Marketing Geek
I think you should start with your interests. No point trying to sell something that you dont know, since you cannot understand what the buyers want. Affiliate marketing involves a lot of writing, so stick to the niche that you know. Finding products from Clickbank is quite easy, use keywords to search for it, look at the website and ask whether you will buy the product. Then decide on the marketing method.
When you say "gather information on your niche" - is there some kind of specific, technical analysis that is done (in order to find out if a niche is profitable)? Or is it simply going to forums, clickbank, etc. and seeing what people are talking about and what products are already out there. I've heard that phrase said before before but don't really know what that means. I can see on Clickbank, CJ or other affiliate sites that there are digital products in the field of XYZ, for example. Is that the leading indicator of whether a niche is profitable? Or are there other indicators that you can use. For example, I'm a huge sports nut, but don't find many digital products in the sports field (that are actually sellling, other than sports betting programs and some golf), but does that mean that it is not a profitable niche or am I just not looking in the right places to understand that.
My honest recommendation is to first and foremost find something you are at least somewhat passionate in. You don't have to be an expert, you just have to find the product/service interesting. I've tried selling products that I didn't believe in. For example, I've tried selling a ebook listed on clickbank on "How to get your Ex Back"... seriously? It had super promising statistics tied to it. The product was obviously selling well. However, I totally avoided my first rule of thumb, I wouldn't buy that dumb product, so how I could I try to sell something that I would never buy myself? It just doesn't work out well. So make sure you are at least halfway interested in whatever product / service you are doing. Secondly, try to find something lower in competition to start out. Sure, you might be making pennies in comparison to the large web hosting companies (a way overcrowded market), but you'll be making money. That is more than the vast majority of people who visit this forum. Look for a fairly common keyword, look at how many search results there are. I recommend trying to find something less than 300,000 search results. This tells me it is potentially a market you could get involved in. If you come across a niche this small, start looking at the competitors. How long have they been in business? How many true competitors are there? How can you offer something unique or better (you don't want to be the same). From here, this is where you can really start to put a strategy together and build a growing real business.
I agree with the passion and you enjoy. I dont think be afraid of competition, you have to be where people are demanding your product. Keyword tools,checkout Brad Gosse's http://www.metasnatcher.com/