Changing fields online - any tips to bring some of my old audience / site traffic?

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You may start by sending newsletter campaigns to your photography list with good photos of your plant products. You can simply explain your story of having two hobbies that really inspire you: photography and planting. Then also include why you are inspired to do this and why both can go hand in hand. Just try to put benefits to things like you can offer your subscribers free ebook on how to get started with planting.

I agree with Affilorama to a degree... I would keep the 2 separate but share the photography aspect from your plant blog on the photo blog. Get into the technical of what you are doing... why you are doing it, and what you are doing it with. Fill lights, light boxes, back grounds, lenses etc.. and offer Amazon links to the products.

You will be using your craft of photography to create income... As much as you are the "photographer" you are also the business owner that will be using your services. One will feed the other, and may give your writing some purpose and your audience some interest in what you are doing.

Thanks for the replies. These are great ideas. The only reservation I have is with the idea of creating new content for the photography blog and newsletter, which documents the technical aspects of the plant photography. Like I said it just doesn't interest me to teach other people how I do photography, and so this would only drag on something that I hate. Further, I don't have time to create content for both the photo thing and the plant thing. At a minimum I think I will do a few newsletters to the photo list explaining that I have this other passion, share a few of the sexy plant photos I made, and then offer the 30 day plant tips optin I have available. Beyond that, I can't see myself continuing to do any photography training or content of any kind. I do appreciate the help

How do you plan on monetizing: tropical plants and vivariums?

flyingSquirrel,

If you simply switch one hobby for another, I am pretty sure the results will be the same as the first time around - you'll end up hating the "plants/vivariums" niche as much as you now hate the "nature photography" hobby that you once loved. That is sad . . . but . . .

It happens all the time. Hobbyists that try to monetize what they love often begin to hate the hobby. It's sad because it's not really the hobby they hate - it's the unproductive money-making that they really hate!

Let's be honest . . . you don't really hate nature photography. If you had a thriving nature photography business that brought in $1 million a year, you would love the niche. What you hate is not the niche . . . you hate your failure at marketing and the fact that you've put in a lot of effort to make money with your hobby that hasn't worked out just yet. You see all your hard work as a waste of time and money. But it's not too late to turn things around.

Personally, I don't think nature photography and your other interest (plants and vivariums) are that far removed from each other - just think of it as expanding your interest into a related topic.

The greater challenge you have is not in niche selection but rather in how you are going to monetize your effort. As I see it . . . you have never put together a full selling system (could be a funnel but doesn't have to be that solely). You've started gathering an audience. You've started putting content out, you're started drawing a little traffic, but you don't have anything to sell just yet. That is what I would think needs to be a priority so that you can start generating some income while you grow your business.

IMO, your plan to do affiliate marketing and later sponsorship and ads is not the answer. To make these things profitable to any degree you have to know how to drive targeted traffic in large quantities or you have to have a sizable budget to buy traffic. Personally, I think you need to offer your own products. Certainly, creating products can be a daunting task for some . . . but it needn't be with all the resources there are online today.

There is always a way to get products created. Here are just a few:

1. Do it yourself. IMO, this is the best alternative. Open you mind to the possibilities - physical products, video products, audio products, and lots of other formats.
2. Interview professionals in the niche and sell their advice, teaching.
3. Create a newsletter, a magazine, even just a helpful email service in the niche.
4. Go to your audience and get them to contribute their stories, experiences, expertise in the niche, compile what you get and sell it.
5. Hire ghostwriters, free lancers, etc - let them interview you on your expertise and have them compile the product.
6. Use PLR (only top quality) or public domain material. I know there is a treasure trove of public domain information and images on plants, nature, and photography.
7. Partner with other niche experts. Let them do the teaching (if you don't like that part of it) and you do the compiling and marketing.
8. License niche material. This is very powerful. I sell a bunch of courses and ebooks I have licensed. I paid a fee to become a license holder and I keep 100% of everything I make on the material. Usually I pay for the license within the first 3 or 4 sales of the material.
9. Sell physical goods if you can find the right demand and suppliers.
10. Create a membership site and feed your audience with any combinations of the above strategies.

Don't be fooled into thinking there is any limit to what you can create. Do all of the above if you want to. Hire others to help you if you need to. But get something (actually multiple things over time) to sell to your audience.


OK, there are lots of other ways to come up with things to sell - but I hope you get the point here of what I'm saying I hope. You've got to sell something to make money and that is where I think you have fallen down.


Don't give up - just keep at it and do whatever you can to start some income flowing - I guarantee you will like the niches you're in a whole lot better if you begin the income streams flowing.


The very best to you,


Steve

flyingSquirrel,

It's fine to disagree! I certainly don't have all the answers. This is your business future that we're talking about . . . so you have to guide it wherever you think best. I just wanted to put a few ideas out there for you to consider.

The best to you,

Steve

You can promote the other niche to your old one. Figure out how to best bring them together to entice your old list to sign up for the new one.

I think it is best, legally, to start a brand new list and try to have some veteran subscribers sign up for it. I know that in Canada here, you need to keep your topics related to why they signed up in the first place. i.e. photography tips

The last thing you want to do, as an email marketer, is to have your list shut down due to spam laws. Governments are really starting to crack down on online businesses and so it is best to get legal opinions on this thing too.

This might not be something you want to do, but instead of teaching photography, what about selling or licensing your photographs? There would be a lot of competition, but there's a lot of competition in any online business.

If I were you I would keep both lists separate.

you mention that you are getting some people right now to your photography site.

Since it is happening passively, why don't you put together some emails selling some products as an affiliate.

I have no I what idea products are out there in this niche--but there has to be something.

I mention this because, why not some money of the list you are building.

Hope this helps.