Posts Tagged ‘niche research’
Your article marketing plan should center around a niche you find interesting AND that has multiple products that sell like hotcakes.
That doesn’t mean, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Nor does it mean, “Just sell the hottest new item with the biggest commission.” Find a field you’re interested in that also sells well.
Why “Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow” Doesn’t Always Apply to Affiliate Niche Marketing
“Just do what you love,” can be great advice–but not always in niche marketing. For example: you don’t want to start out trying to sell people on a great guide that teaches them how to be a great web writer. Trust me on this one!
Likewise, beginning affiliate marketing in the comic book, pewter miniature, or 80s post-punk vinyl markets…probably not great places to start. They might be decent to you in the very long run but if you’re just starting out, it’ll keep your morale up to see more money more quickly than niches like this can provide.
Most people looking to make money online don’t want to be web writers–they want to be rich. If you’re going to pick writing as a market, do it as an adjunct to something else (and hell, even then, you should probably angle your content to marketers more than to wannabe writers. I’m just sayin…).
But if your passions include payday loans, weight loss, making money online, colon cleansing, or getting back with your ex: boy are you in luck! That’s because when you start out at this gig, you need to go with markets that are proven performers.
If you want to see if you can monetize your favorite hobby or find underserved, obscure niches, that’s great too. But it’s best to wait on that and go with proven performers when you first start out. They’ll make you more money, more quickly, and keep you from loosing morale.
Speaking of discouraging–you’re going to get discouraged sometimes. You’re going to get frustrated and feed-up, you’re going to feell like you want to quit.
Don’t quit.
Accept the frustration and move along. Persistent effort, applied intelligently (aka with an article marketing plan and not just random effort), will see you through.
How to Pick Your Article Marketing Niche
Fortunately, there are several everygreen markets and niches and hopefully you’ll find one of them–or one of their subniches–interesting enough to keep on with. (You don’t have to fall in love with it.) These markets are all profitable. You just have to learn how to work them.
(You can always start a music blog or an automotive blog or whatever and hope to make money with it. but if you really want a quick and more-likely-profitable education in niche marketing via articles, you should pick from one of the four evergreen niches.)
The basic four evergreen niches are dating & relationships, make money, get out of debt / credit repair, and health. This last one includes some beautiful specialties such as weight loss, vitamins & supplements, and colon cleansing. Seriously, colon cleansing products sell as steadily as bottled water or cigarettes.
How to Pick Your Niche Product
Go to ClickBank.com and click on the “Marketplace” link at the top of the screen. Once you’re in the marketplace, you’ll see links for various categories (Cooking, E-business, Health & Fitness, etc.) on the left-hand side. Clicking on one will show you all the sub-niches contained inside that category. It will also show a list of products in the center of the page.
It’s usually best to click on one of the niches/sub-niches beneath the category. However, if you want to find the best-selling products in the category overall, you don’t have to.
Go to the results and click on the “Sort Results By” dropdown menu and select “Gravity”. Gravity is a measure of how popular the product is among affiliates, so you’ll want to select the product at the top of the list as a product to sell.
Now, select the product below that one. Then, select the product below that one.
That’s it. You’re done. You’ve found your three products. They’re the three best-selling so you don’t have to worry that you might’ve picked a loser. All you need to concentrate on now is your marketing ability.
Nearly all good online niche marketing starts with keyword research as a foundation. Your article marketing plan should be no different. In fact, keyword research is more central to article marketing than it is to most methods. Tomorrow, I’ll discuss how to do research without driving yourself crazy.
