Diabetes Niche

I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes last August. Obviously, when one is diagnosed with any kind of disease, one learns all about said disease (if they are smart, anyway).

Since I'm an Internet Marketer, I thought, why not start a blog documenting my experiences and providing helpful advice about things that work for me such as diet and exercise plans, what foods to eat to help keep blood sugar down, etc.

The first thing I learned about a month or so after starting my blog is that the niche is highly competitive, maybe even more than weight loss. If you are not an expert at SEO don't expect to get your articles ranked anywhere near page 1. With proper on-page SEO you are looking at a beginning rank somewhere around page 20-25 for most keywords.

The next problem lies in the products that are available to promote. They are mostly products that claim to "reverse your diabetes." Since most people believe that diabetes is a progressive disease and cannot be cured, you are already looking at an extremely skeptical potential customer base.

While I am not somebody who trusts the modern medical community because I believe the pharmaceutical companies would rather keep us sick, I have not pursued a conventional treatment for my diabetes and my results have been outstanding. I am off all medications, have dropped 85lbs, and feel better than I have in 10 years. However, that's just me.

I believe diabetes is a condition of how we have been taught to eat and what we put in our bodies, and, believe it or not, all evidence indicates that I have indeed reversed my condition. I now enjoy normal blood glucose levels with no medication and have been symptom free for the last 3 months.

All that being said, I understand that I am indeed STILL a diabetic, and always will be, and if I were to go back to my old habits I would once again become unhealthy very quickly. Why is this?

Because by the time you are diagnosed with diabetes, your pancreas has been damaged so that it does not produce enough insulin, thereby sugar is not broken down in the body properly, causing hyperglycemia, or excessive levels of sugar in the bloodstream. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the general idea.

So, is it a good idea to go around promoting products that promise to "Reverse your diabetes in 30 days or less." NO! In fact, it's downright irresponsible and dangerous!

Not only that, it's dangerous. I was diagnosed at age 40. My body is still young and healthy enough that if I eat right and exercise, I can possibly reverse the condition - to an extent. The pancreatic damage is done and is IRREVERSIBLE. That's what makes these products so damn DANGEROUS. The truth is that if an older person who is already on a regimen of insulin and other drugs tries this little product, it could potentially KILL THEM.

You may be thinking that if it's going to be difficult to rank your website, you could always turn to paid traffic. That's true. If you are going to try Google Adwords be prepared to pay $1-$2 or more per click. If you go with Facebook or Twitter ads be prepared to have your account banned pretty quickly. They don't allow those types of products, and they are not very keen about you even advertising your website, unless you are a doctor and you are advertising your practice. YouTube ads might work. I've seen several people using those, but again, stiff competition there.

Another thing you will have to contend with in that niche is the huge amount of big time authority sites, particularly the American Diabetes Association website, which dominates page 1 for most diabetes keywords. After that you'll have to contend with Web MD, The Mayo Clinic, and Wikipedia.

Can you make money in that niche? Sure you can. If you're ready to work very hard and you have a huge advertising budget.

That's just what I learned from my little foray into the niche. Take it or leave it