It is so great of you to put this together! Thank you! (I already signed up in the other thread...) I'm going to be one of those annoying people who asked stupid questions, I'm sure, so sorry in advance! I'm just a n00bie!!
So, here's my first, if you have time to answer... I've been trying to do my "homework" lol that you outlined in that post earlier... (what we should be doing while we wait for NE3 to officially start) and I keep coming up with ideas for niches that I'm interested in, but I don't think they'll be profitable - so
How do you choose a niche??
Well, I just look for whatever can make me money, then dig around and see if there's any others doing it. If there are a bunch of others, then that means there is a market for the product (most likely).
For example: some "saturated" offers: credit reports, teh berries (acai), anything weight loss, dating, refinance, etc.
The reason I put saturated in quotes is until you can prove to yourself that there is no more money to be made, then it's not really saturated. The reason you see so many advertisers is they are making money at it.
Let's look at berries: berries are the latest ringtones. If that analogy went over your head, don't worry. Ringtones used to be THE offer to run. I got into them after the market was already saturated and still made good money. Berries are probably no different. Not saying you should jump right into slinging acai, but it's an option.
Oh? Am I slinging berries myself? No. Not anymore. No real reason, other than I found something I like better. What is it? It's not really one thing, I'm running about 5 main offers. You'll see one of the newer ones in the PPC tute video. That video will be an actual offer and actual PPC accounts, so you're not going to get some watered down bullshit. If it does well, great! You'll get to see that, if not, well you'll learn what doesn't work for that particular offer.
Back to how you figure out what you want to run:
- Talk to other affiliates. They may not give you their golden eggs, but most will at least help you figure out what might work for you.
- Check out the sponsored links in the search engines. Are there a bunch? Few? Might give you an indication of how profitable it is. Pay attention to only the affiliate marketers' links, ignore manufacturers and retailers.
- Talk to your affiliate manager. They know whats converting on their network and are more than happy to help you out. If you make money they make money.
Once you have an idea of what you want to run, learn everything you can about it. Back to the acai example, find out:
- What is acai?
- How does it affect the body?
- Will it really do what it says?
- What are the terms and conditions of the offer?
- etc.
You need to know your product like the back of your hand. That knowledge will help you market it better, and figure out your demographics / placements faster. If all you know about it is "it's supposed to help people lose weight" then you're going to be that much farther behind the guys that took the extra hour or so to figure out those questions. Don't make it harder for yourself to make money. This is your business, treat it as such.
:angrysoapbox_sml:
