Are Niche sites for Affiliate Marketing Redundant 2016/17

Take a look at this article https://www.affilorama.com/blog/trav...liate-programs

You should also join that site for free and get their free reports it could help you as a newbie to affiliate marketing

al

I agree with agmcall,AffiloRama.com is a great training site for people interested in making money with affiliate marketing.

Nope not at all. I recommend you listen agmccall on this one, Mark Ling is a treasure trove of good practical knowledge you can use right now.

Aff Marketing and niche sites are not dead in the water...

Yes, content is king but he is an old man and he needs your help to get the message out there...

So you gotta to actively promote your content. And dont forget to be consistent...

Also, the tips and strategies that you have to say, have been already said.. so come at it from your unique angle.

Before they become your customers they need to be your followers..

Best of luck,
Ike Paz

CravingALifestyle,

It sounds like you and I are from the same neck of the woods. It also sounds like you have the makings of a strong business plan. I work in quite a few different IM fields, running both online and offline-online hybrid models, including some that see me working with local Welsh businesses, so let me see if I can give you a few more ideas to consider. Before I do, though, I must say I rarely see newcomers to IM that arrive with a cracking plan. First up, then: thumbs up.

Righto. Let me just throw some bullet-points your way. In general terms, this is what you want:

• A localised traffic empire, based around Welsh towns.
• Monetized by media selling, JVs, and affiliate offers.
• Online and offline advertising.
• Designated local niches that target specific audiences.

To flesh-out the above bullets into a practical example, let's consider a location such as Llandudno.

Llandudno, as you'll know, is a strong tourist destination, which attracts holiday-makers from the rest of the UK, and indeed from all over the world. If you were to look at Google search volumes for Llandudno, you'd discover that the majority are tourist-based; people looking for hotels, for bed and breakfasts, for things to do, for places to eat, and so forth. These people should, I'd recommend, be your primary target audience; with local businesses and entrepreneurs in Llandudno becoming your second target audience.

The question is, why localise? One word: penetration. I remember that just over 20 years ago, when I got my start in IM, local businesses in the area were only just harnessing the internet for business purposes. That was actually how I got my start. I was at university at the time and also working for a local hotel. Knowing that I was a "computer geek," I was asked by my employer to build them a website, and help them to get the word out. I duly did that, and the rest is history. Point is, though, times have of course changed.

You'll actually find that the local tourist trade, in this Llandudno example at least, is actually quite strong online. "Quite strong." Not nearly strong enough, though, which is were you come in. Their strength, currently, lies in Google, and therefore in SEO and SEM. These businesses have certainly expanded beyond merely optimizing for Google but, as yet, their online footing is not nearly proficient enough. Local businesses have integrated social media, for instance, but most of them only employ it on a very basic level, and I could say the same thing about other forms of IM. Bad for them; good for you.

Now, I say localise for a couple of reasons. Firstly, in order for you to have any chance whatsover of setting up traffic platforms in Wales, no matter where you live or which towns you choose to target, you will almost always encounter strong search resistance. In other words, many of the sites that appeal to the strongest search terms and target the strongest audiences have been around for one or two decades, and the SEO agencies behind their search results are none too shabby (mine being one, lol). You can compete, when you're expert enough, but to penetrate efficiently you really will have to localise. For example, it will be much easier for you to rank websites, videos, articles, socials, or anything else we care to mention, if you target a specific town, rather than Wales as a whole.

So, to continue our example, how might you target the tourist crowd heading to Llandudno? You'll want to examine the search terms and determine what they want. And then? You give it to them. It might be a resource about things to do, or it could be a resource for local hotels, guest houses, and B&Bs. Point is, you give them the resource they want, but with one caveat: you avoid setting up a resource that puts you in direct competition with a strong and established similar resource. At this stage in your IM career, you won't have a chance of competing with an established platform. Now, once you have figured that out, you'll want to build that resource.

And notice that I've yet to mention monetization. Why? Because, despite what most marketers will tell you, monetization will always come second to providing what your target audience wants. So, a resource. What I would do, in your shoes, or indeed in your slippers, or possibly even socks, is make life easy on myself: start out with a Wordpress blog. You'll want to designate a niche, as mentioned, and register 2 domain names; one for the actual blog, another to be redirected. If possible, select a keyword domain (an EMD, exact match domain) based on your niche, and get (if you can) the .co.uk and the .com. Use the .co.uk for the blog, and redirect the .com to your .co.uk, and make sure both domains utilize the exact same name.

One plugin you'll want to install is Wordpress SEO by Yoast. When adding content, you'll notice this plugin just below the content field that you're writing in. A nice simple trick to writing fairly decent SEO content is to simply keep that box happy. And it will tell you how to keep it happy, and every time you do so it will give you a green list. The objective? Turn all of those lights green. As you can image, there's a lot more to SEO than that, but given your newness I'd stick with this plan for now, because it isn't all you'll be doing or have to learn.

Next up: social platforms and video ranking. Setup associated social platforms for your new business in all the usual places: Facebook, G+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and so forth. You'll want to learn how to setup, optimize, brand, and manage these platforms, because not only will these help to rank your website locally, but they're going to provide you with further traffic platforms for the locale. Also: videos. And this is a potentially exciting area for you. The locals may be fairly adept at SEO, but - not nearly as adept at video SEO. What I'd do, in your shoes, slippers, or socks, is learn to rank videos for my blog; because, not only will that give you an immense leg up in the local market, but it will be a service that you can offer to local clients.

And now monetization. You can certainly include Amazon, but I'm not really a fan for a local business model; you'd need a very large network to make it interesting for me. What I am interested in, however, is selling exposure to local businesses. Tell you why: these businesses are buyers, and furthermore, if you keep them happy they'll buy from you month in and mouth out. What you want to do, then, is target them primarily as your monetization source. There are many ways to do this, including giving them a taste of free exposure, but one thing is paramount: collect them onto a specific (use segmenting) newsletter; a newsletter aimed just at local businesses. Now, aside fromt that, I'd recommend affiliate offers and JVs. Example: hosting (affiliate offer) and web design (JV).

Icing on the cake? When you have your first blog up and running and gaining traction online, you'll want to begin thinking about a second. What I would try and do is dominate a certain location, based of course on whether or not that location is a strong one; a place like Llandudno, for example, where you have strong audiences on both sides of the coin (tourists and businesses). If you do this right, trust me, local businesses will find you. In my own experience, these people are hungry for online exposure, and more than willing to pay for it. Lovely people, too, I should add. But you don't just want to wait for them; you want to advertise online (local websites) and offline (local papers and flyers).

I could talk all day, but I hope some of those ideas will help you out. All the best!

- Tom

P.S:

To any of our other members, the above information is useful no matter where you live in the world. I've only had time to cover a few highlights, but the essential model I've described above could be used anywhere from Manhattan to Wallace, Idaho, to wherever in the heck you live. One interesting area to consider (out of the above) is video marketing. Even in a location like Manhattan, for instance, another offline location in which I work, you'll find it very easy to rank videos for certain terms, both in Youtube and in Google (where your video is appearing in the Google search results). Doing so, and this is what appeals to me, allows you to actually compete (head on) with established websites in the SERPs, that may have taken a decade or more to get their ranking. If you know your way around video marketing, you can often outrank them in 12 to 48 hours.

- Tom

Your idea is basically very good, however this goes into the travel sector
and that is hard to break into with a new site. You have to have a look at
the keywords you target how crowded it is already.

If you see many corporate sites and other international multis in your
prospective results then you dont have much chances to beat them,
even if seo sellers say you can. You wont, not for a year or two.

Only chance: keyphrases these guys dont target, i.e. longer phrases
and "review" phrases, thats something what bloggers do, not the big guys,
but they usually dominate everything else + spend 1000's on adwords as well.

Affiliate marketing through niche sites is not dead at all, and very good money can be made if you rank those sites highly and get lots of traffic to your offers/products. Your idea is a good one, you just need to develop it some more.

Do some keyword research to find out what people in your niche are searching for/ looking to buy. Then build a site around those high volume keywords. Once your site is properly optimized, continue to add quality content and build backlinks to get its rankings up. To get even more traffic, you can submit and rank videos in Youtube. Use social media (eg: Facebook) etc. I hope my suggestions have given you some ideas to work with.

They will always be here. What your doing is creating a campaign and going after organic search traffic. Its a way to get traffic is all niche sites are. They are one of the most simple, easiest and fastest things to set up once you do your research and stuff.

I will not go into the issue of whether niche affiliate marketing is dead or not. That's a very broad question according to me.

However I like the idea how you have planned your future website along with its revenue model. That's really impressive. I am quite sure if you persist with this exact idea and build your website with regular updates; in no time you will see results in terms of traffic and then revenue. In the beginning, you may not see the results that you are expecting because of the competition. But the beauty of your niche is you are only targeting local market. Hence you can overcome the competition easily.

P.S
Don't hesitate to add some local unique feature to your site to make it more appealing for your niche audience.

I don't see why it couldn't work.
I have some types of these sites right now that are making money.
In the end the best way to find out is to try it.

I agree with building your own niche websites in affiliate marketing. It's not redundant to build niche websites. It all depends on how you provide your information and how you market your website. If you know your market well, you can get followers and traffic to your website, and everything, including sales, will come after You can check out Affilorama blog section for our niche of the week. This will give you an idea how you build and market a niche site.

Although is this redundant now?
Certainly not. Affiliate marketing is still very viable.


Is it too difficult?
Not particularly. It depends on what you're gunning for and the approach you eventually decide to go with.


Are there easier ways to make money online?
Your best shot at this would be to shoot for a sub-niche in a big market. Basically, you want to pick a sub-niche in which you can create 15 solid content on some very specific thing that is part of a larger market. By going this route, all you need is about 15 great keywords to make this work.

And yes, you can monetize with Amazon or any other affiliate program out there.


How does this sound?
Your idea is kinda a great idea.


Is this kinda marketing dead 2016/17?
No, it isn't.


Is there easier ways and higher returns out there for beginners?
I really don't think so. All genuine ways to make money online requires some considerable upfront work.