Hey guys, most of you don't know me. So let me go ahead and explain who I am. I've been in Internet Marketing since purchasing a site in March 2007 that was profiting. I thought I knew enough, but that kind of threw me into learning how to market a website and how to improve upon one already making money. Since then, I've primarily been dabbling in ecommerce where I have done quite well. Now though, I would like to try my luck at affiliate marketing where I have done a little bit, but not much. I've received a couple of checks from Commission Junction, but nothing to brag about. I decided I would try to provide a helpful thread, but also learn something along the way too. So here is my journey so far:
Step 1: Find a Niche
Rare, but not too rare
I personally don't think finding a niche is the hard part. My personal guidelines for selling things online are that I don't want to try and sell anything you could easily find at walmart. I've always told other people, that there is a reason why toilet paper doesn't sell well online for the most part. Most people can go down to walmart and buy it and unless they are buying in bulk for whatever reason, you probably can never beat walmarts prices. Therefore, I look for products that people are searching for and that I can compete in. If you have no ideas off the top of your head, go to Amazon and start looking around, more than likely you'll find something relatively rare if you drill down far enough in the broad categories. At the same time, you have to make sure that the product is actually searched for online.
Me: I stumbled across this product in the real world after having a situation that needed resolving. This product couldn't be purchased at Walmart, so I did some digging and several items in the niche were sold at Amazon.
Keyword: 1300 Exact Match Searches per month
Step 2: Domain Availability
Pretty clear and simple, I want to go with an Exact Match Domain. Using others suggestions, only allowing .com, .net, or .org.
Me: The EMD.org was available.
Step 3: Research Competition
I think one of the biggest issues for most people is that they simply do not do enough research to begin with. Some people get in way over their head in extremely competitive niches because they never did the initial research. I don't think you have to spend hours and upon hours here. I know I want to be in the top 10 for my primary keyword and will need to be there in order to make the money I'm hoping for. Can I do it is the question?
Me: I went through the top 10 results and simply looked at backlinks and PR. The competition looked reasonable. To be quite honest, I'm not sure how it is going to go down, but all the links are amazon, walgreens, walmart search (which actually pulls nothing up), etc. Below is a brief rundown:
Rank 1: 200 Backlinks, PR5
Rank 2: 380 Backlinks (subpage of #1), PR4
Rank 3: 43 Backlinks (subpage), NA
Rank 4: 0 Backlinks (subpage), NA
Rank 5: 13 Backlinks (subpage), PR4
Rank 6: 0 Backlinks (subpage), PR2
Rank 7: 0 Backlinks (subpage), PR2
Rank 8: 4 Backlinks (subpage), PR4 (unrelated to the niche)
Rank 9: 4 Backlinks (subpage), PR4 (unrelated to the niche)
The top 2 results is really the only direct competitor, but they are targeting a different keyword than what I am. Theirs is actually a misspelled version of the one I'm going to try and target, which happens to be their brand name.
Example: Targeting blue widgets, they are targeting blue widgts, although blue widgts is a brand name for a blue widget.
Step 4: Keyword Research
At this point you should know whether it is a viable option to go any further or not. But if you feel like it is so competitive and there are enough people searching for the product, perhaps a longer tail keyword is a better option to target so that you can rank more quickly. I went with the traditional "3 Keywords" method. I have a primary keyword, and 2 longertail keywords that contain my primary.
Example:
Primary: Blue Widgets
Secondary: Best Blue Widgets
Secondary: Blue Widgets Reviews
Me:
I ended up settling on this:
Primary Keyword: 1300 EM/month
Secondary Keyword #1: 720 EM/month
Secondary Keyword #2: 140 EM/month
Step 5: Content
Following some other advice around here, I didn't purchase anything until I developed my content. I prefer to do my own content because I know I"m doing it right for one, I care about the reader and want to make sure it is exactly what I'm going for. This is a time consuming effort, but I think it is worth it.
Me: I wrote 5 articles, only one was below 500 words, most were all up around 700 words. I came up with the titles based on the keyword research and my primary and secondary keywords. I'm also looking for something that is informative, but also encourages people to buy. This took me roughly 2 hours. It is not uncommon to purchase this from a writer. This is an especially good idea if you are not a native english speaker.
Step 6: Setup Your Website
Simple enough, this is the stage where you buy the domain name, set it up with your web hosting, and get the website actually up and running. Here is a checklist I created that really derives from other suggestions here.
- Install Wordpress Theme
- Add RSS Feed
- Add Authority Link (Wikipedia for example)
- Add Google Analytics (my preference)
- Install Plugins (All in one SEO (other other SEO plugin), I also use 301 Redirect to modify my affiliate links)
- Modify General to fix Permalinks on Wordpress
Me: I essentially followed all of the above, this is another consuming effort getting all your content up the way you want. You also have to mess with your affiliate links. I tried to make sure they were all cloaked and affiliate links were scattered through the content naturally encouraging clicks.
Example, I did a "Best Blue Widgets" post, and with each I provided a picture and a link to "Click here to Purchase" the blue widget. I did similar things in a couple of the other posts.
I also tried to ensure affiliate links were easily visible on each page. I actually ended up using Elements of SEO for my theme because I liked the simplicity feel of it and wanted to give it a shot. I don't think there's that much special about it, but I threw it up there. I ended up heavily modifying the sidebars to show some of the links for products I was marketing. This was also a time consuming effort.
I would say all in all, look at spending a good 4-5 hours here.
Step 7: Link Building
My plan is to get high PR links first. Build some authority, try to not go too overboard with the automated services. For me, I don't expect this website to make over about $75.00 per month. This is my target, and this only adds to my overall income and gives me something to spend on other projects. That means I need to keep the cost way down on link building.
Me: This is where I stop this post and start working from here. I wanted to include all of the above for others who may find this thread helpful.
Step 1: Find a Niche
Rare, but not too rare
I personally don't think finding a niche is the hard part. My personal guidelines for selling things online are that I don't want to try and sell anything you could easily find at walmart. I've always told other people, that there is a reason why toilet paper doesn't sell well online for the most part. Most people can go down to walmart and buy it and unless they are buying in bulk for whatever reason, you probably can never beat walmarts prices. Therefore, I look for products that people are searching for and that I can compete in. If you have no ideas off the top of your head, go to Amazon and start looking around, more than likely you'll find something relatively rare if you drill down far enough in the broad categories. At the same time, you have to make sure that the product is actually searched for online.
Me: I stumbled across this product in the real world after having a situation that needed resolving. This product couldn't be purchased at Walmart, so I did some digging and several items in the niche were sold at Amazon.
Keyword: 1300 Exact Match Searches per month
Step 2: Domain Availability
Pretty clear and simple, I want to go with an Exact Match Domain. Using others suggestions, only allowing .com, .net, or .org.
Me: The EMD.org was available.
Step 3: Research Competition
I think one of the biggest issues for most people is that they simply do not do enough research to begin with. Some people get in way over their head in extremely competitive niches because they never did the initial research. I don't think you have to spend hours and upon hours here. I know I want to be in the top 10 for my primary keyword and will need to be there in order to make the money I'm hoping for. Can I do it is the question?
Me: I went through the top 10 results and simply looked at backlinks and PR. The competition looked reasonable. To be quite honest, I'm not sure how it is going to go down, but all the links are amazon, walgreens, walmart search (which actually pulls nothing up), etc. Below is a brief rundown:
Rank 1: 200 Backlinks, PR5
Rank 2: 380 Backlinks (subpage of #1), PR4
Rank 3: 43 Backlinks (subpage), NA
Rank 4: 0 Backlinks (subpage), NA
Rank 5: 13 Backlinks (subpage), PR4
Rank 6: 0 Backlinks (subpage), PR2
Rank 7: 0 Backlinks (subpage), PR2
Rank 8: 4 Backlinks (subpage), PR4 (unrelated to the niche)
Rank 9: 4 Backlinks (subpage), PR4 (unrelated to the niche)
The top 2 results is really the only direct competitor, but they are targeting a different keyword than what I am. Theirs is actually a misspelled version of the one I'm going to try and target, which happens to be their brand name.
Example: Targeting blue widgets, they are targeting blue widgts, although blue widgts is a brand name for a blue widget.
Step 4: Keyword Research
At this point you should know whether it is a viable option to go any further or not. But if you feel like it is so competitive and there are enough people searching for the product, perhaps a longer tail keyword is a better option to target so that you can rank more quickly. I went with the traditional "3 Keywords" method. I have a primary keyword, and 2 longertail keywords that contain my primary.
Example:
Primary: Blue Widgets
Secondary: Best Blue Widgets
Secondary: Blue Widgets Reviews
Me:
I ended up settling on this:
Primary Keyword: 1300 EM/month
Secondary Keyword #1: 720 EM/month
Secondary Keyword #2: 140 EM/month
Step 5: Content
Following some other advice around here, I didn't purchase anything until I developed my content. I prefer to do my own content because I know I"m doing it right for one, I care about the reader and want to make sure it is exactly what I'm going for. This is a time consuming effort, but I think it is worth it.
Me: I wrote 5 articles, only one was below 500 words, most were all up around 700 words. I came up with the titles based on the keyword research and my primary and secondary keywords. I'm also looking for something that is informative, but also encourages people to buy. This took me roughly 2 hours. It is not uncommon to purchase this from a writer. This is an especially good idea if you are not a native english speaker.
Step 6: Setup Your Website
Simple enough, this is the stage where you buy the domain name, set it up with your web hosting, and get the website actually up and running. Here is a checklist I created that really derives from other suggestions here.
- Install Wordpress Theme
- Add RSS Feed
- Add Authority Link (Wikipedia for example)
- Add Google Analytics (my preference)
- Install Plugins (All in one SEO (other other SEO plugin), I also use 301 Redirect to modify my affiliate links)
- Modify General to fix Permalinks on Wordpress
Me: I essentially followed all of the above, this is another consuming effort getting all your content up the way you want. You also have to mess with your affiliate links. I tried to make sure they were all cloaked and affiliate links were scattered through the content naturally encouraging clicks.
Example, I did a "Best Blue Widgets" post, and with each I provided a picture and a link to "Click here to Purchase" the blue widget. I did similar things in a couple of the other posts.
I also tried to ensure affiliate links were easily visible on each page. I actually ended up using Elements of SEO for my theme because I liked the simplicity feel of it and wanted to give it a shot. I don't think there's that much special about it, but I threw it up there. I ended up heavily modifying the sidebars to show some of the links for products I was marketing. This was also a time consuming effort.
I would say all in all, look at spending a good 4-5 hours here.
Step 7: Link Building
My plan is to get high PR links first. Build some authority, try to not go too overboard with the automated services. For me, I don't expect this website to make over about $75.00 per month. This is my target, and this only adds to my overall income and gives me something to spend on other projects. That means I need to keep the cost way down on link building.
Me: This is where I stop this post and start working from here. I wanted to include all of the above for others who may find this thread helpful.
