Internet Marketing - Which Mentality Do You Side With?

Take the middle road.

Don't have too many that you can't keep up, but don't put all your eggs in one basket either.

Instead of focusing on just one or having a ton, have as much as you can that you can put good effort and content in.

Hopefully this helps, while I'm on my 48 Laws of Power rants, lol.

Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another - intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.

Very interesting replies so far...

Keep 'em coming!

I have a feeling this is gonna get good...

I have about 5 niche sites, that earn nice steady profits. But I am also going head on in the home business market.

I like having 5 niche sites up at a time so I can continue to earn profit, and that way if something happens to one of the sites I will have a back up.

The home business market is my true passion, because I always have wanted to help others make money, now I have found a way to do that.

I will always keep up at least 5 niche sites at a time, and focus mainly on the home business market, because this is the market I want to earn most of my income from

Roger & Charles...

you both bring up some very interesting points...I'm DEFINITELY coming back to read them when my mind is clearer in the morning because this is a topic I'd like to discuss further (almost 4AM here) - I feel it's one that can really start you off in the right or wrong direction right off the bat in IM and has probably been responsible for many new IM'ers to fail because of one of the two choices they made regarding the OP.

My passion is on the money, so I follow where the money go.

I have more than 25 sites. I build, optimize it, market it, leave it to mature for 2-3 month, come back and see the result. If it has potential, I'll continue to market, if its not I sell it. Rinse and repeat.

So I guess I'm on side one.

For me, I will usually try to dominate as much as I can in a niche before I move on to other niches. However, I do build some review sites and run PPC ads to test out the new niche at the same time... just in case there are money left untap in there

Building a ton of niche sites selling a cheap ebook may not be the best long term strategy. Depends on the exact strategy being used.

Many factors involved.

Direct Response Marketing is not new and if you follow the proven strategies of getting into a niche your passionate about (thats profitable) and creating a backend around it, it may be more profitable for you and for the long term.

While you can make money with 25-50+ different niche sites, who knows if that is really long term? I prefer getting into niches and building backends than building a quick niche site and moving to the next one.

Chicken Soup For The Soul...

Chicken Soup For The Student's Soul, Chicken Soup For The Bachelor's Soul...

If you find a market that buys and you have a product that sells then you re-purpose the product to target niches within the market.

Matt

1. "Build a ton of different niche sites and really diversify and just dip a little bit into a bit of everything."

2. Analyze, see what niches are making you the most money.

3. Focus on building an authority site (or a few) on the niches that are making you the most money. If passion is an issue, choose the highest money maker that you're passionate about.

4. Put 80% of your efforts into the 'winners' and 20% of your effort into more market feeler minisites...

5. Outsource, automate (you can and should start this at step 1).

6. Hit the beach plaaayer.

Back in March 2008 I concentrated on a hot niche... it was a Clickbank product and it got me earning $10k a month in NO time, only free advertising, the fun continued for 4-5 months then it just died. The niche died, I think most of you know what product I am talking about...

Well, I learned my lesson and will never try to DOMINATE one niche but rather have "Online Real Estate" in a few different niche.

So, unless you succeed to dominate some IM niches or the Weight Loss niche - then I'd suggest to be at least in 4-5 different industries...

Alex

For every product, there is a life cycle, just as it happens to man. If you specialize in one and that product fulfils it life cycle and die, you will have to start all over with a new product. Having say 4 or 5 is good and if one dies the remaining 3 or 4 will keep getting you money till you find a replacement for the dead one.

I believe in diversification. it is simply the best.

Cheers.

Taiwo.
http://pluginprofitsite.com/main-25325

I side with this

"Focus on one niche you're passionate about, and ONLY focus on dominating that."

But I practice that

"Build a ton of different niche sites and really diversify and just dip a little bit into a bit of everything."

Great thread. I believe it comes down to a number of personal factors, including your own skill sets, interests and in what ways you are personally inclined to take the most action.

For me I have found my largest monthly income happening when I'm going deep into one or maybe two niches, not wide into many different niches. The most successful marketers I know take a similar approach.

I am not suggesting this is the only way to be successful. I can only speak to my own experience and that of others I know - there are many I don't know doing things differently.

However a lot of factors play into why this approach can be extremely successful, namely:

- Going deep lends itself to providing more value
- Going deep lends itself to building a brand
- Going deep lends itself to stronger positioning in the market
- Going deep lends itself to broader product offerings
- Going deep lends itself to maximizing your prices
- Going deep lends itself to attracting JV and affiliate partners

Most of all what I've found is this:

Going deep is what your customer wants.

They want to know you aren't just scratching the surface to solve their problem. They want to know you are fully invested in them and their success. When they can see this is the case they tend to spend a lot more money with you.

I should qualify all of this by saying my frame of reference is inside hugely competitive "make money" niches - specifically real estate and IM. But what I'm talking about can be applied to any niche where there is a lot of proven buyer demand.

That is my own experience. Take whatever makes sense for you and apply it. If it doesn't make sense for you, don't apply any of it.

One of the keys to success is having a larger list of "don't do's" than "to do's".

Ken

Well, short term you should do whatever makes you money, but long term I say do what you are passionate about.

Either mind set is find as long as you always thinking progressive.

I'm diversifying as much as I can. I have the skills and time to do it so it isn't spreading me to thin.

If a couple of these niches hit the big time surely it is better than one. What if that one dries up, what do you do then? Start from scratch again...fantastic.

Concentrate your effort on developing ONE niche into a viable business and THEN start diversifying and replicating your success.

There are different types of people. Some people are great at multi-tasking and there are people that aren't. So if you are great at multi-tasking then here are my thoughts: which is a copy with a twist of Kevin Riley's input:

I believe in focusing all your energy on one or two niches, until you have built up a solid business. Later, you can diversify into another - but only if it doesn't take away from your making the most of those initial niches.

If you are "dipping" into many niches, how can you effectively monetize any of them. Your energies are split. You aren't making the best use of your mailing list - as you'll have a number of unrelated lists.

This is what my hubbie and I have done over the past 9 years. We've built up different businesses over the years but we focused on 1 or 2 at a time. At the 3-4 yr mark or so we dived into another arena of interest for us, hence my name PassiveCashGal! LOL

I was initially mentored in IM by Derek Gehl and Cory Rudl's Internet Marketing center. They, like most other experts and in fact practically everyone that I have gathered information from over the years, are of the same opinion. You do one niche and do it as well as you possibly can!! and then a second niche and do that one as well as you can...and so on.

Diversity can exist in time, but the key is to be complete and thorough with each niche to maximize its potential.

This thread has matured into one of value. I not only absolutely LOVE hearing from folks who have been around the IM block, I also truly APPRECIATE having the opportunity to access this information due to everyone's willingness to contribute their feelings about this topic (along with many others here at this forum)!

If I had continued to focus on dominating my first Niche I would still be broke. Test several niches in parallel and then focus on the most successful project. Then start the process again.

Andy

Wonderful words of wisdom here.

Roger, yeah, I agree too...

Everyone here is great, aren't they?! I love it...

Now it'll be interesting to see what folks have to say @ http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-question.html

I think its comes down to people, some are great at multi-tasking and others prefer to focus on one task at a time. If you have a talent for multi-tasking I think its best to dominate a niche fully before moving on to other niches. At this same time you will want to monitor other niches by building review sites and run PPC ads to test and see if its a viable money making source! Hope this assists...

Dominate that niche baby! If you love your product then people will love hearing you go on about what you love. Snappy!

And some marketers say...

*Adsense is dead
*Affiliate marketing is the "perfect" business model
*You MUST have your own products to make any real money
*And on and on and on.

This is why so many "newbies" go eight steps back for every nine they go forward... so much conflicting information.

The truth is, much of the info is neither right nor wrong. It's just that we're each unique and have different interests and skillsets.

The best advice I can give comes from author Stephen Covey...

"Begin with the end in mind."

and

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

Figure out which business model suits your personality type and your skillset and then persevere until you get the results you're after!

To me, it's not a question of 'which niche?' or 'should I focus on one niche or diversify into lots of different niches?'... it's a question of doing those activities that generate the most value.

So, rather than approach our business from the perspective of 'should we focus on one niche?' or 'should we diversify into lots of niches?' we approach it from the perspective of what can we do that will generate the most value for us, based on our interests, strengths, skills, resources, opportunities, etc.

The result is that we have several niche info product sites, a growing portfolio of parked domains, another host of affiliate websites, a site highly focused on domaining (not finished yet) and a site highly focused on Internet marketing news, etc... and no self-imposed limit as to what we might do next...

Granted, we now have a team of programmers, researchers, writers working for us, so we have the resources to do more than if it was just me. But that just goes back to the question of making choices based on resources as well as interests, skills, strengths, opportunities, etc.

"Many Streams Make A River"

one of my favourite quotes and how I like to run my online business

It's very interesting to see this thread go
untouched for nearly 5 months only to see it
spark back up again with more great input!

And by the way, for anyone wondering who "Anapest" is/was...
That was my original profile name here
before I changed it to my real name.

(Anapest was a band I was in for 9 years).

Confucius say "Take middle road."

Someone just starting out needs to focus on finding what works for them, and so should focus on a good niche that is bringing in some money.

But eventually, he or she will need to branch out to keep learning and earning. Just keep in mind that if you spread yourself too thin, then you aren't really being honest with your customers.

All the best,

Tizzy

I don't like to put all of my eggs in one basket. I can get a lot more organic traffic from a good keyword domain than I can from a more general promotion. I have a lot of niches.

good to see this thread. it's providing me informative insights to plan my online quest.

I did a lot of multi-tasking in my job (still working though but have the plans to quits in few months) but i guess i can't apply them in online world. it's so different that i lose focus on a lot of occasions trying to start an online business that offers free time and independence.

I like the idea to start to focus on one thing and make it to profit before jumping to another related niche and build an empire. for me as a starter in the online world, i think this is a good business model. I am doing it all by myself at the moment but planning to outsource most of the works later on.

This post is indeed valuable!

From a newbie IMer perspective: I believe in the power of focusing.

From the replies, there is indeed mixed reviews. But the concept of focus is still there..

Many hot niches have come and go. Money made and then stopped. What to do?

Back to the old adage of knowledge is power. The fact that you have the skills to be able to dominate a niche when it is still hot will remain with you. Focus on that ability, and use it to dominate other niches when one dies!

On the topic of focus, to do the above it depends on each person's ability to cope, especially if you work alone. If you can cope with several sites for several niches, then why not? The key here is to focus on your ability to dominate the niches, not diversify your attention to various other methods or anything else that will reduce your effiiency.

Hope I made some sense!

Jeff

If you can create multiple successful businesses then by all means do it. The question is, can you REALLY turn those 50 sites in successful businesses or they'll just be crappy sites?

Most people will just create crappy sites.

Tyrus

I lean more towards diversification. I think of my niche blogs as an investment portfolio. I would not put all my money into one stock, nor would I put all my time and effort into one blog.

Diversification into different markets is good especially during a rocky economy because some do well and some don't.

If I had only stuck with the ones that are not performing as well my income would be lower.

I do however, look at my blogs that perform the best and pay extra special attention to those ones.

How about, I give another option that says, you chose one niche at the first time. So that you can do better and learn faster. And when you got better you can concentrate more on the matter and be more competent to handle the principle of diversity. In here you share between your risks and don't loose everything on one bad deal.

I hope you know what I mean???

Anyone can be an expert at anything, granted they study the niche they are marketing.

The bottom line is what makes money consistently.

So If I have only 1 niche that only making so much, maybe another niche can bring in the same or more.

Then you've got 2 niches working for you instead of 1.

I liked the guy with 200 niches post, whatever it takes to make money.

Think, Plan, Build, Achieve...

Think - Keyword research for long term SEO.

Plan - Figuring out the business model, how you want the site to look.

Build - Creating the storefront, Writing unique content in whatever means possible, testing to get the results you want. Moving on to the next niche.

Achieve - collecting the checks. Wash & Rinse. Moving on to the next.

Only then can you move on to the next niche to market.

One step at a time.

I know plenty of people where that is all they do all day. Outsourcing their weak skills so they can focus on what they do best by building 10 or so niches per day.

When you get to this point, you will see how quickly the money starts coming in.

Creating multiple streams of income.

Not reading about it, doing it.

For me the best method is to focus on one passionate niche and if its not working adjust what you are doing till you hit it out of the park. You will spend the same time refining your niche as finding other niches you are less passionate about.

However, I am very guilty myself of jumping around and have to discipline myself constantly to not look at the other things out there. It usually involves having to pay the bills at the end of the month as opposed to pursuing your passion.

People say it is bad to have "many projects and plans", and then work on all them and in reality not finish ANY of them.

This is certainly true. But it is not easy to make a plan or have an idea what is going well *without* a big array of trial and error projects.

I have to admit that actually a major part of my income is from a "sum" of many different things, different sites, different techniques. Often its impossible to say beforehand what works, and often results can be surprising. Things you think they're not worth putting work into it all of a sudden surprise you being the big money makers - and other things you planned out well and thought might be killer turn out duds

Same with niches. At the beginning there is always a "try and observe" period...and then time will tell whether something works or not, and THEN you can focus on the one which works. Diversity is always good tho, never depend on ONE thing as being your money maker.

You know, I looked at Paul's remarks and went back to the OP. The original post asked about niches and the approach of one giant all out effort on a single site VS. many small sites.

Paul's comments are quite valid and relevant here. You should have a process in place to implement your niche site's development and promotion. Without it, you will be lost. Let's say that you have a process in place (if not, read all the threads about site promotion, bum marketing, etc.). Now you have chosen to build a niche site. My advice at this juncture would be to create your dream blog but spend some time creating very small niche blogs with 3-5 articles each to test different niches.

Monitor the progress of all your sites. One day, you might find that all the seeds you planted will become giant trees. You might also find that your dream blog was not the thing you thought it would be.

TomG.

yeah i'm a fan of specified effort. The 80/20 rule gave me a better understanding of why it works so much as opposed to diversifying. You get better quicker, and your results seem to prove it.

Both are great ways to start off. But you should probably begin with something that you are pssionate about. That will give you momentum forward. You are less likely to give up prematurely if you have a passion for it.
You want the easy successes first, to give you encouragement to move forward.

What a great thread to read, wow!!!

There are benefits to both, I choose pick 1 niche, 100% focused on it for about a years and super build it to the point where it will hold you up (You dont need that long, but it was worth the solid returns month after month). Then look at getting into another niche.

If you choose one niche to start and focus all your energy on it, you will find new ways to break the barrier in getting more traffic and business (Example no one in my niche was doing eBooks, automation, BBB, video instructions), maybe that is because I hangout here , the point is that focus 100% will let you grow bigger to expand. Learn from others outside your niche more then inside to expand.

Next, once you have that niche 100% running with minimal involvement by you, move into the next niche as long as its not impacting your original niche (what I did was get a marketing company so it would keep marketing going).

I guess I'm a little bit of both.

I take a niche... set myself a daily target.. once I hit it on an automated level I outsource the basic duties and find something else and keep the original running.

I don't try to run them by myself because I'll lose control. My aim is to have a structured system I can use as leverage and then get someone else do to it.. while I move on to build something new.

This sounds like a smarter method. Imagine a beginner trying to manage multiple niche at once. He'll just end up confusing himself.

But..If you have sites on a niche that's on autopilot - meaning you get traffic (then sales) without doing much then it would be a good idea to let it make you easy money and move to another niche.

Maybe I can say focus in "FEW" niches.

Is that the middle road?

I really think it depends on the niche - a nicher by definition is small and might not normally need sub sites, but a nicher like dogs that has multiple breeds certainly has room for sub niches of many kinds

Hope this helps

Dave

If you had asked me a year ago I would have said to go for multiple niches and avoid having all your eggs in one basket. But today I have to admit I have found far greater success by focusing all my resources in one direction.

Nigel

Fantastic thread.

As was already mentioned here, we're big fans of our customers and clients starting out with one niche that they're passionate about, and doing their very best to make it a success. If you're just starting out, trying to achieve success in too many directions often results in an inability to make a real go of any particular thing you're doing.

The key is to test everything and track everything -- that's the only way to know what works and what doesn't. After all, it doesn't matter if you succeed (or fail!) if you don't know WHY you succeeded... because then you can't duplicate that success.

Learn from your failures and your successes with each niche, and apply those lessons to everything else you do.

One more thing: overnight success with a niche happens sometimes, but slow burns generally pan out into more profits.