Phil Wiley on niche marketing ... a few key extracts
"Now for some stuff about mini sites and niche markets...
Ok, we're about to delve into niche marketing. As you
probably know I build mini sites to promote affiliate
programs, but things aren't always smooth sailing....
Here's an example:
1. For the past few days I've been working on a brand new site selling an electronic product.
And I've had big problems finding a good affiliate program to promote on the site.
The product is so new there's hardly anyone around selling it...which is why I'm building the site...but I made the little mistake of not checking out the available affiliate programs first.
The main one I wanted wouldn't let me join because I'm not in the USA. The second one rejected my application with no explanation. A third turned me down because the site has less than 5000 monthly visitors (well it would, being brand new, wouldn't it?)
It only leaves me with a choice of three affiliate programs. One is Amazon which doesn't pay well. Another has a site so complicated that it probably has a terrible visitor to buyer conversion rate.
The third, and the one I'm going to concentrate on, seems ok, but pays lower commissions than the programs which rejected me.
I keep getting asked why I spend time building sites selling electronic products, and other consumer products when I'm quite well known in the "internet marketing field" and could be "cashing in" on it.
Well one answer to that is I hate the thought of "cashing in" on you.
I don't want to put put in the situation where I have to spin a lot of hype here to earn my living.
But there is another reason...and it's that there's a
whole big world out there. This "internet marketing"
niche is just a tiny arena, with very few people doing
well in it.
Or even searching for information about it.
Using the Overture Search Suggestion tool, you can see that:
internet marketing was looked up 51,854 times.
which is less than
golf balls at 85,899
chocolate at 128,653
binoculars 197,859
tropical fish 364,792
horses 502,779
candles 544,710
recipes 1,462,713 (no wonder Willie's doing so well with his Soul Food recipe book)
and the list could go on and on.
Mind you, I did find something looked up less than internet marketing, and that's earwax with just 894 searches.
That's not to say you should dismiss building a site on earwax. If you could find a product to sell, (and I'm not sure you could) it wouldn't take much to get to the top of the search engines.
The third placed site, for instance, only has a Google Pagerank of 4 and has just 10 backward links. I'm sure you could beat that :)
Even the top site, which is nothing to do with wax in ears, only has 40 backward links.
I found out this information by using the free Google Toolbar.
Why are PageRank and backward links important? Because Google uses backward links as a large part of its ranking criteria.
You can read more about this...and a whole lot more... in Andre le Roux's useful new book, The Search Engine Yearbook 2003. More on Andre's book when I've had time to devour it properly.
Do you know which site gives me more ideas for mini sites than any other?
It's Corey Rudl's "Secrets To Their Success" site which I've written about a few times. Take a look at the Mad Fish and Englishmen piece from issue 257 for more on this site and subject.
When I read the success stories, and see the subjects people are building sites around, my 2 brain cells go into overdrive and start throwing ideas around my mainly empty head.
So if you're looking for some inspiration give the free trial a spin. You'll find the link in the Mad Fish piece.
This month features a 20-something Brit who started a small site about exercise equipment just 10 months ago and is now making $5000 a month in affiliate income.... and works on it just 2 hours a week.
Now imagine building and running 5 or 6 sites like that?
"Phil Wiley's ebook on MiniSite Profits is, in my judgement, the best minisite manual on the market. Thorough, clear and written from the experience of his own success. I use its principles and
can thoroughly recommend it to you." |