Category: Blog

Deciding on a market sector in which you can build/monetise websites or blogs, create digital information products or any other money making activity is actually fairly straight forward. Everywhere you look online you’ll get a lot of ideas. The key to it all is selecting a market that has a top chance of always being a highly profitable niche and is evergreen. Below are 3 key indicators that I’ve broken down and give you a better idea of what to pursue further before diving in deep. It could save you a lot of  hours or even days in wasted research time. Following these indicators is something that has worked for me over the years.

Every time you start a brand new campaign in a fresh market you haven’t done before you need to remember that it takes t just as much time and effort in order to create something in a highly profitable market than a low one.  The product end result might be different but you still follow the same process or amount of time to produce it.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why you’d want to take some time to identify the profit potential of a market before you start building anything. The small amount of time you take up front can save you weeks of wasted effort.

Key Criteria #1: Are there buyers?

The first indicator that a market will be profitable is whether or not there are buyers in that market. In other words, are people actually buying stuff related to that market?

You can quickly determine would what it is from these main source that I use (most other marketers use):

• eBay
• Amazon
• Clickbank
• Google search results (just by looking at the number of paid ads competing on page 1)

eBay, Amazon and ClickBank can usually tell you either way if you’ll get high demand products to sell  in the niche you’re targeting and if so, you’ll see how well they’re selling. If you check the paid ads in the Google search results this will give you a very accurate indication of the competition. If there are lots of ads you know its in demand and more than likely profitable. There’s a very good chance people are buying from those sellers since they wouldn’t be paying for ads otherwise.

Key Criteria #2: Are they printing magazines about that topic?

The 2nd key indicator of any profitable niche or market is the print magazines coverage on that topic. If there is a big mag coverage – as in more than a couple, that’s a very good indication of money spending in that market. Consider too that printing is high cost, so they only get published in markets when it makes financial sense to do so.

Key Criteria #3: Is there enough demand?

The 3rd key indicator in any profitable market is the ongoing demand for information about that topic or subject. If the subject is happens to be something that most people will want to keep going on to learn more, or maybe even there is a lot of sub-topics or sub-niches (often referred to as a micro-niches) that you could take on as a campaign, then that’s great news as it means its better than a niche that has a limited opportunities.

So what I mean by that is this – say if someone is on Google looking for information about how to stop snoring and then they find a product that solves their snoring problem. Then that’s it. They wont need any more solutions to offer them as the problem they have is fixed.

But let’s say that you are looking at a big evergreen niche such as the health and fitness niche (which is a much broader market) it would have a lot of different sub-topics. So a person looking for guidance on how to lose to weight, for example, would more than likely be very interested in knowing about healthy foods or recipes, fitness training programs and progress on to seej a variety of  advanced information – way after they achieved their initial goal of losing weight.

As you probably know, there are thousands of people online that are making good money by just blogging with personal website domain or just a free web 2.0 blog platform with some links going to products to earn affiliate commissions.

This is indeed is a proven way for just about anyone who knows a lot about something (such as a popular hobbies) or someone who has something interesting to say or enjoys writing, however its not exactly an easy thing to set it all up for making money, like some internet ‘gurus’ will tell you. It takes a bit of work and if go about it the wrong way in the process then you aren’t going to get to far.

On the flip-side, it’s not that hard IF you have a process to follow and don’t over-complicate things. This includes one the ultimate end goal of making money with your blog.

The Blog-For-Money Process in 4 Steps:

If you want to profit from just doing blogs then there is 4 major steps involved:

1. Provide quality content to your readers – The goal is to create quality content that will generate traffic naturally (via search engines and virally via social media)  and then keep them coming back to build a loyal following in your chosen niche.
2. Traffic – Get as many niche-targeted visitors to your blog as possible so you can build your subscriber list and get readers to click on your strategically placed ads or links to products.
3. Build trust – Keep sending more quality content via your list which will build trust with your subscribers, while all the time you provide great VALUE.
4. Sell products – Recommend and products (either your own paid products or as a affiliate) to your trusted subscribers you do this by integrating it with your own content and make the products you’re offering relevant to your own provided content in you niche.

So at first glance of the 4 steps, it this doesn’t appear to be that  complicated. Especially when you look at in this summarized form as a whole.  But when you begin to break it down there are things that go beyond most in trying to master and makes it hard to keep progressing through the process.

So just say for example, unless you are a skilled accomplished writer then making quality engaging content can be tough. That’s even if the person knows a lot about the ins and out about particular niche. They struggle to communicate it effectively in writing or make interesting.

Ok, so what is the solution to coming with high quality writing content?

There are 3 options you can do:

1. outsource it to someone how knows how to write post or articles and..

2. get the outsourced writer/s to edit whatever you write so its clear, concise and makes sense. Cleaning up your posts or articles could be the difference in getting 10 subscribers or pushing the back button on their browser.

So what I’m saying here is, you should hire others to do things that you aren’t that great at, and just about straight away the first step in the process is less daunting and easier. So where do you go to get the right people writing for you? Here some links to get you started finding to help you with getting quality content written for your blog:

• The top 11 content writers on UpWork.com
• Blog writers at textbroker.com
• 10 best content blogs writers follow

3. Learn the art of creating great content – obviously the best choice if you can’t afford to outsource everything and it takes time to find a writer that suits your needs. Below are some of the best resource link articles that I personally use myself and refer to all the time:

• 22 Tips for creating great content when you don’t have a clue
• The nine ingredients that make great content
• 6 tips for creating content that spreads naturally
• The English grammar guide

The most difficult step most bloggers find is the actual SELLING…

The thing you need to do with selling anything on your blog is deciding on what to sell. If you happen to have already creating your very own product that relates to your blog then that’s perfect! You can start offering it to your subscribers after a few emails in your follow-up message sequence.

If you don’t have your own product, you can always decide to promote products as an affiliate within your niche and earn yourself very nice commissions. A blog that is monetized the right way (such as ad banner positioning) could earn 100 dollars per day without even 1 email sent to your list.  This is a great option if you aren’t interested in creating your own products (for whatever reason – eg. lack of funds or resources) but you still know your niche well and people are coming back to your blog to see what you think about a product or topic.

It’s unlikely you’ll make more profits than having your own product but you’ll find that commisions can be quite good (some bloggers make 6 figures per month just promoting affiliate based offers!). This is turn will give you the funding needed later on to outsource and create your own products. A lot of bloggers also make good money via providing advertising space (which will happen after getting lots of visitors per day), or you can even just focus on CPA offers.

All of these type offers can be displayed via ad banners as well as text advertising that you can place in optimal positions for maximum clicks on your blog’s posts or pages. While this not the highest in revenue streams you can do, it’s still the single most passive income stream you can get and it’s very simple/quick way to get going on your blog.

You’ll find that quite often online advertisers will contact you with a great offer for getting specialized advertising for their products or services. This will happen frequently the more presecence and authority you have in a niche along with search engines.

Keep in mind that whatever path you choose to make money with your blog, you still need to remember one very important thing…

Having your own blog to make money is going to be no different to running a business (which is also about making money for a profit after running costs).

So you’ll still need to be committed and keep dedicating a lot of time, resources, money and hard work into it for it to be a success. You’ll find that there is going to be no shortcuts or easy path to blogging for money online.

In Summary

Focus your efforts initially on steps 1 to 3 which is publishing great quality content that has great free value to your readers and subscribers while building trust and putting high priority into building a list.

You’ll find that once you’ve got all those steps in place then doing the selling part is going to be much easier for you!

 

If you are like me when it comes to doing affiliate marketing, then you know that its about making as much money as possible – just like operating any other business. Being an affiliate means creating residual income stream or a whole series of streams.  To make this reality you need to take massive action and work hard. There are other basic things you need to know of too, that I’m sure you heard all before such as doing solid research, using the right affiliate program etc. etc. But the following are advanced tips that I’ve used in my own efforts over the last few years that have really helped me succeed online.

Tip #1: Patience

Lack of patience for is the main reason newbies to online marketing (such as bloggers and business website owners) will give up on trying to make big money online doing affiliate marketing within the few month as they can’t see instant results or any money coming in.

Getting big commissions flowing in from ANY affiliate program is not going to be easy at first and could take you months for the really big pay days. This is why patience, is vitally important thing to put into practice right away because it’s rare to make a big money within days or even weeks. So its always best keep in mind that the affiliate marketing business is not a quick path to get rich scheme.

Tip #2: Making money requires you to spend

Even though there a plenty of free methods to start out in affiliate marketing (such as free traffic, free blog and other free tools) Being an affiliate is like any other business. To make a profit you have to spend. This one of the big keys to  generating a steady residual income. To get the money flowing in you’ll need to spend money. This includes at the start investing the bulk of your profit margins back into your business.

Buy all the products (or ask for review copies) that you are planning on promoting. Learn all you can about those products Understand the key pros and cons. This is what you need to communicate back to your potential customers – this is how you  sell anything appear genuine – base all the hard sell on your own experiences. So it goes without saying, if you don’t know the product(s) it’s going to be an uphill battle to make any money from it. This doesn’t mean going out and breaking the bank just spend enough so that you get the chance to know the product you want to promote.

Tip #3: Monetize ASAP

There is no real rule behind exactly when you should monetize – in fact sooner the better (but don’t overdo it initially).  So if you own a blog and you want to promote a product  you don’t have to sit back and wait before you starting to add banners or links on your blog.  A big mistake most newbies make. Start to sell products/services right from the start introducing them gradually throughout your blog. It’s actually more important that you show your readers your passion about the products you talk about as well as knowing it A to Z.  This is much better than waiting a specific time for selling – (note: this doesn’t mean you spam your subscribers every day with 4 or 5 emails with hard sells either).

Tip #4: Know your audience and speak their lingo

Part of your research once you’ve your product or niche is understand your potential buyers – you’ll need to know who they are, understanding your audience is vital for marketing to them. You’ll need to know what they like, where they live, their income, spending behaviour and even the language or lingo talk which allows you communicate to your marketing that so much easier. When you know your audience you make better decisions about what products to market to them.

Tip #5: Always be honest

Without a doubt, honesty is definitely the best policy when doing affiliate marketing. Being honest in your reviews of any product is going to help you get better results like I have. Always make a point of stating the pluses and minuses for every product you review or promote. It doesn’t need to be all listed in complex detail. Summarise it all into pros and cons. You’ll find that there is no product in existence that is flawless. You are going to find something that’s not quite right so point that out – your audience will appreciate your reviews as being genuine and telling them you’d like to see something different will definitely help in gaining trust that they should be buying from your affiliate links.

Wrapping up…

So you’ll find the above five advanced affiliate marketing tips will definitely help you as they’ve helped me in making affiliate marketing work for making GREAT money online. Always refer back to them when things aren’t going as well as you’d hoped, usually it means you aren’t following at least one them.