Saturated Niches: Not For The Weak

From weight loss to payday loans, there are certainly some niches that are nearly impossible to break into without some serious dollars up front. That is, of course, unless you're clever.

As you know, I've been doing a fair amount of research into organic affiliate marketing (AKA bum marketing). Quite obviously, the people who do the best with this type of marketing are the ones that have websites that already have a huge amount of traffic to a niche keyword and another thing I've noticed is that these sites are typically service-based vs. information-based.

Sure, article sites have their place but service-based websites keep people coming back and they bring people back in. And these days, service-based websites are also lucky enough to feature user-generated content. That means a lot less work for whoever's operating the website itself.

Now that's great and all but the thing is, not all of us are able to create social networking websites and even if we are able to, even fewer of us could market it well enough to make it work for us the way I'm talking about now.

So what's left? You've got viral marketing, which is never as easy as people like to make you think it is. You've also got things like e-mail marketing, putting banners on other peoples' sites (banner arbitrage) and, of course, pay per click. Only one of these is strong enough to do any kind of volume and it's the most difficult of all previously mentioned, so whether you want to spend the money to make it worth your while is up to you. For some, that could mean tens of thousands before they start doing real volume sales that bring them any kind of ROI. And even then, nothing is forever.

With that said, it's really up to you whether you think saturated areas are worth your attempts. While there's definitely money to be made (or it wouldn't be saturated), breaking in is far more costly than many are willing to bear. My advice? Focus on smaller niches from the start. Master two or three spins on products and once you have the money, THEN break into the more saturated markets. Hell, you can even pay developers to make you a social networking site and market the hell out of it. Saturated markets aren't for the weak as they are naturally the most competitive.

Keep that in mind.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Two = Better Than One

No, I'm not pumping out an article a day like I used to but when something inspirational strikes, I like to get it out to you guys as fast as possible.

Having been an affiliate marketer for quite some time now, I can tell you one important thing: what can be done by one can be done exponentially greater by two.

Sure, we are greedy by nature. We don't like to share. But, what's better -- being greedy with your measley revenue or sharing your insane revenue? The answer is a no-brainer and what's more, team work allows us to focus on our strengths and let other people take care of things we're not excellent at.

In fact, the underlying message in this post if you hadn't picked it out is just that -- playing to your strengths and minimizing use of those things that you aren't good at. Of course we'd like to take care of everything ourselves but most times, that's just not realistic. You can accomplish so much more if you focus on what you're good at and have other people use their talents to complete the rest. If that means outsourcing those tasks, great. But what's amazing about forming a partnership with other people is that they're essentially doing the work before they get paid which means you don't have to pay someone out of pocket on something that might not work. If you're good at marketing and your buddy is good at web design, don't be afraid to delegate those tasks to each other -- it'll save time and money in the long run.

Also, something that you combine forces on is more likely to be a success. If you think about it, when you're accountable to someone, you're much likelier to complete a task and get the work done -- and sooner! The faster you can pump out successful products/campaigns, the less failures you'll endure and the more profit you'll enjoy in the long run.

Be aware, trust is a big factor when choosing partners and for either partner to breech that trust is a point of no return. So when choosing people to collaborate with, make sure that A. you trust that person, and B. you never breech the trust of that person. That means you don't go behind your partner's back and use what you're building together for your own personal gain. As long as you're up front and clear about what your intentions are, none of this should be a problem.

To conclude, I just wanted to point these things out to those people that are struggling to get ahead in the affiliate marketing game. This is for all you people who are wasting time and money on projects that keep failing. Focus and think big.

Popularity: 5% [?]

100% Organic Search

Despite hundreds of dollars spent on organic search rankings and things of that nature, one thing is becoming quite clear about methodized organic affiliate marketing (or MOAM): it ain't easy.

That is, at least not for me.

From what I can tell, if you want to rank for short-tail keywords organically, you're going to have to spend about the same as you would for the search terms (surprise, surprise). There are exceptions to the rule, of course. For instance- popular service-based websites (like plentyoffish.com) that already have a huge and growing user-base are going to have little trouble making thousands per day in affiliate conversions.

But you already knew that and so did I.

What the experiment has done a great job of is confirming that you need to spend a good deal of money to make money with affiliate marketing, unless you're clever. That's because clever people can do any of several things with less traffic:

1. Create a highly-relevant website that naturally makes people convert
2. Use incentivized offers to generate leads
3. Disguise affiliate links as real links/images within the site (Greyhat)
4. Generate tons of back-links to interesting things (link-baiting) to put their site in the spotlight
5. Do traditional marketing with affiliate offers (putting up signs on the street, overpasses, etc. & sending out mailings)

Sadly, I have yet to be successful at any of the above but I'm a pretty stubborn determined person. However, the clarity that has come with this small realization has helped me narrow my focus and my funds on two of the above methods in order to continue with this experiment: #1 and #4.

If you can create a highly-relevant website (like a dating site, a niche news site or a health information site) where good, unique content gets created daily, and then you can use link-baiting techniques to get people to promote that site, suddenly you've got a cash-generating machine. Of course, this is speculative based on conversations I've had with people who own niche sites that just get organic traffic. The only problem is that conversion rates are typically much lower than with PPC, depending on how well offers are foiled.

To make a long story short, that's where I am now -- having things created that match the above description in hopes that I can cash in on the work of others. I'll keep you posted.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Bye Bye Forums

I am officially removing the forums from the site as they are receiving way more spam than helpful conversation. This is due to the fact that I hadn't appointed any moderators but then again, I don't think the forums received enough traffic to warrant anyone moderating the posts that weren't happening.

What I noticed was that some people started posting an average of 200+ threads/day for pr0n and the like. No bueno, so adios forums. Until we have a good reason to resurrect them, that is.

Of course, if you have any questions that need answering, feel free to leave a comment here and either I or someone intelligent will answer you in a reasonable amount of time.

Yes, I'm still here people so stay tuned. I have good things planned for you and your bank accounts.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Yes, I said it. Selling credit cards and other financial goods and services online is a good money maker. I recently checked out CashFlowFromCreditCards which is a multi-level marketing platform where users can earn money in two very different but equally as lucrative ways.

First, you can earn commissions by promoting credit card applications, free credit reports, auto loans, and a slew of other financial goods and services. An affiliate to the system made a video titled "Double Your Profits in 20 Minutes" where he not only doubles his initial investment but he more than quadruples it. After watching this video it dawned on me that it really is possible for ANYONE who signs up to make their initial investment back at the very least by following his step-by-step instructions here.

Second, you can make money by promoting the actual CashFlowFromCreditCards business opportunity. You can earn up to $65 per referral to the CFFCC system which is a really nice payout especially considering the new embeddable flash video they have made available to affiliates for promotion. Take a look at the FLV promo video below, as you can see this video carries my tracking code so if any of you sign up for the CashFlowFromCreditCards system by clicking through the video I will be credited for the referral. This tool harnesses the promotional power of videos online and is sure to change the way video promotion is practiced online.

Overall, I recommend giving credit card marketing a chance, especially during such rough economic times. The financial services industry is a 5-billion dollar industry annually and is growing each and every year. Check out CashFlowFromCreditCards and own your own piece of the multi-billion dollar financial services industry today!

Popularity: 5% [?]

I Just Blue Myself

I don't normally do this sort of thing, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Blueverse was kind enough to give me a little interview, so I obliged them with some answers.

Check out the interview here.

Sorry it's a tad long, but I thought I'd be thorough.

Oh and if you don't get the title reference, it's to a hilarious episode (and really, which one wasn't hilarious?) of Arrested Development where Tobias tries out for the Blue Man Group.

Outstanding.

Popularity: 11% [?]

As I'm sure many of you have, I've had my fair share of weight gain since high school. In fact, I gained about 25lbs and a few weeks ago at 201lbs, I was starting to get too big for my shirts. It was depressing to say the least. It was a good wake-up call as I was determined not to succumb to the shame of buying bigger sizes in clothes. Basically all I do is sit and stare at a computer all day, first at work, then at home. I mean, my eyes should be turning into little square monitors by now. So I figured something had to be done.

The first thing I did was stop driving to work. I live about two miles from the university where I'm a web developer by day, so I decided to start taking a bicycle to work. It's sweaty business but I have a little Hawaiian Breeze fan that cools me right down. The side benefit to this is that I don't waste money on car repairs, fueling up or a parking permit.

Biking to work did help the weight a bit but I could tell it was going to be a slow process. Then my wife mentioned the Master Cleanse and after some research, I started that. No, I'm not trying to sell you on this and if you decide to try it, do so at your own risk. Now I won't go into detail but let's just say -- it's cleansing in the way that Mexican food is cleansing. I won't say it wasn't difficult to avoid eating but the choice I had was much simpler to stick to: eat or don't. So I did that for eight days and was able to lose 15lbs, of which I gained back 2lbs (water weight) after two weeks and have since lost. Currently, I weigh in at roughly 186lbs.

So the other day, my brother in law showed me a website called hundredpushups.com. Essentially, It's a six week program where you work your way up to doing 100 consecutive push-ups and it's free. I figured -- I'm no stranger to push-ups; I did them a lot when I was younger, so why not? So far, I've finished day one on Monday and I'll finish up day two today. And in case you're wondering, I was only able to do twenty push-ups for the initial test but I'm determined to get to the one-hundred mark.

Popularity: 12% [?]

So I'm about a week into my experiment and I actually have ranked for some long-tail keywords. The particular keywords I've chosen are high volume so they're naturally going to be difficult to break into. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this difficulty has been the rumored 'sandbox' that Google places new websites into when they're related to high volume (and therefore, high spam) topics.

I've gotten a trickle of traffic from Google for the long tail keywords and I'm on page four for both. I can definitely hear the rushing rapids of pages one and two coming up soon though. It just pushes me foreward. The funny thing about this is - I've only paid for a few websites to advertise my link. Other than that, I've been writing articles, posting in topical forums and manually submitting unique descriptions to directories (although none have kicked in yet). Oh, yes, and I've been paying people to post on the website's forum.

All this and I get page four for long tail keywords! Ouch. This could get rough.

So now I'm researching other bum marketing methods as well as just methods that just flat-out help you climb the rankings. I'm also trying to think of a few clever ways as well, like link bait articles or some sort of side service that gets people to back-link the site. It works well for my Myspace Layouts site.

So that's where I am right now. I'll keep you posted on the status of this project.

Popularity: 13% [?]

I've heard some good things about Ringtones lately and I was thinking about jumping back in it.

Are any of you still doing Ringtones?

One thing I don't like is all the extra steps that keep getting piled onto these types of offers. That, and the way the top dogs are in bed with the ringtone suppliers already.

Other than that, I think I've learned some valuable things that would make it possible to do a few thousand a day in ringtonage but I'd like to know what you guys think.

Popularity: 12% [?]

These are my top five speeches about making money/sales. Feel free to comment if you disagree but these are the five sales speeches that make me feel inspired to stop being lazy and make it happen (it being money). I say NSFW due to the use of bad language, not nudity.

Boiler Room - Group Interview

If you can watch this without being inspired in some way, you might be dead inside. I've seen this clip more than fifty times and I'm still not tired of it. You should watch this at least once a week to remind yourself why you're in this game.

Glengary Glen Ross - Always Be Closing

I hadn't seen this until today when my brother in law showed me. What's good about this is that it shows what it takes to shake people out of their comfort zone and that's what it takes to make someone a closer. If you aren't closing, you're fired.

Wall Street - Greed Is Good

I couldn't make a top five list like this without including Gordon Gekko's speech in Wall Street. It's a way to remind ourselves that what we're doing is for the benefit of man kind. Greed makes the world go 'round.

Boiler Room - Telemarketing Pitch

Pay close attention to this one. This one makes me think of the myriad of cheesy landing pages out there. People just aren't trying and it's the biggest reason you hear complaints from people. "I can't make sales." Then you get the complaints on the other side from people having to wade through all the spammy sales pitch pages. Do yourself a favor and actually SELL your audience. Go the extra mile to have them choose you over the next guy.

Jerry Maguire - Show Me The Money

It's simple: "Show me the money." Enough said.

Popularity: 16% [?]