13 replies
Is it just me or is this whole world of warcraft affiliate thing really overhyped?
I am a huge WoW fan and i play the game regularly. I have never had the urge to by a leveling guide or an ebook on making quick gold. They have in game quest guides now so there is no reason to go out and buy one. It is also easy to make gold and everyone from beginners to experts can do it without someone else's help.

Yet i hear all the time that it is a profitable niche and you can really make some money off of it.

Could someone maybe explain to me why anyone would want to buy this stuff or how being an affiliate of something like this is profitable?
#talk #wow
  • Profile picture of the author avandrunen
    It is a profitable niche for much the same reason the get rich now products are profitable.

    Offering to teach people how to make millions of in game gold so you can purchase this armor or that special mount, etc...with out having to grind for it is exactly the same as someone wanting to buy a guide on how to make a million dollars tomorrow.

    Those that don't know better will buy into it.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769138].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author petelta
    I used to be a WoW player myself a while back. I always fell to the MMO addiction as a kid. I was thinking the best niche to hit for WoW would be the recovering addicts.

    There are too many players not to have someone buying guides. Everyone is looking for an easier way to do things. Those guides promise an easier way then you know. Even though it might be true or not, people will always be buyers in that kind of market. They are already paying a monthly membership to play.
    Signature
    TEESPRING Student Rakes In Over $116k In Less Than 3 Months
    Niche Pro Profits - How I raked in OVER $120k in 9 months with authority niche sites...

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769175].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author BacklinkKing
    It's a very profitable niche because there are a lot of diehard WoW fans out there. I heard that it was one of the most popular games ever online. And being an affiliate is just one way that you can make money online. Being an affiliate usually doesn't cost much, you just need a domain name and web hosting at the most.

    And yes as petelta said above, if they are already paying every month to pay, what else are they willing to pay for.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769202].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Burtgummer
      I can't speak of how well the niche does because I haven't put any time into it yet.

      However, I played WoW heavily for 3 years. I played the original game with no expansion packs.....and it was quite a bit different than it is now.

      Earning gold (the in-game currency) was not easy at all when the game was 'new'. I happened to get good at it, but it wasn't easy to do. The demand for gold was fricken huge.

      Today, you can get 1k gold for about $5. It use to be $100 for 1k gold when the game was in it's 'original' state. Like I said, it was an absolute pain to make good amounts of gold.

      Due to that demand, people were looking heavily for guides that would teach them how to make gold. Apparently these guides sold like hotcakes compared to now.

      It's still difficult to start out as a brand new player, because gold is still difficult to get at the lower levels. But if someone has a higher level character, then gold is no problem because it's much easier to get higher valued items at a higher level.

      Leveling guides were also huge. "Get 1-60 in 2 Weeks!" Many of them worked too, if you put the time into it.

      Then the first expansion came out that raised the level cap to 70. Shortly after there were guides for getting from 60 to 70.

      The same thing happened when the cap was raised to level 80. So that's where the money is at the moment....leveling guides. Gold is easy to get, but leveling is always a new challenge for people who haven't gotten to the top level before.

      I almost miss playing that game.....but it REALLY sucked the time out of me. I was one of the 'hardcore' players, so I actually spent more than 50 hours a week playing it.

      Now IM is my version of WoW, haha.
      Signature

      “Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.” -Nikola Tesla

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769249].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    What you have to do right from the start is actually promote yourself as the best, no one is going to follow someone who is useless...with me and Runescape I am certainly not the richest but people listen to what I say because my system for making money in that game has a 98% success rate with virtually everything I touch turning into gold and I have the ears of one of the top 5 fansites around for that game. EVERYONE there knows my name since I led the entire forum on a money making experiment and set the prices skyrocketing for every item I talked about back when the trading system was changed and no one had a clue how to make money.

    I actively promote myself in that game all the time, there is barely a game hour that goes by without me telling people how I do it and I am welcomed in some of the biggest chat channels around with everyone listening to what I have to say. If I say something is going to drop in price or rise in price it does because I have watched prices for a long time and they become easy to predict, something bordering on magical for some people.

    I did this with one of the most innocuous and underrated items that it seemed impossible...the equivalent of trading a paperclip for a month and ending up with a ferrari.

    This is your biggest challenge, first be someone people will willingly follow due to your success and then start marketing your product, why should people listen to you tell them how to make money if you cannot do it yourself consistently even if you are only marketing someone elses product?

    Once you have 100 minions consistently making money with your methods they will spread the word for you.

    (I am in the top 0.2% of wealthy players)
    Signature
    “Thinking is easy, Acting is difficult
    And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goethe”
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769231].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Dan Bainbridge
    Gaming is a massive niche - it's that social element that really makes it - because it is multiplayer there is competition from other people - real people.

    They want to boast to their friends, they want to have unique items, more gold, to be able to play the game to the full. Not to mention the sheer popularity of the game and amount of players.

    The same goes for Farmville guides and why they are popular - people want to show off to their "neighbours" in the game With anything socially competitive like this there is a market for it.
    Signature

    Hypnosis Affiliate Program Pays 50% + $20 Join BONUS
    Real Subliminal Messages Pays 35% (world's largest subliminal site)
    SubliminalMP3s.com Pays 75%

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769257].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Matthew Moyer
      A long time ago I used to play Asherons call which also had
      lots of people selling items and guides and macros to it.

      I got to see a lot of the guides that were being sold and most
      were literally overhyped common knowledge to most people
      who played.

      The same happened when I started playing Runescape too.

      Most of the guides are practically useless that contain common
      knowledge that are hyped up because if they weren't noone
      would buy it.

      I think it's kind of sick that people would sell the info to these
      games. I know it's marketing and yet I know that the info can't
      be that good or useful to anyone is isn't basically a complete
      beginner.

      The only money I did ever make online though came from selling
      items and actual leveling of characters in Asherons Call and millions
      of gold in Runescape long ago. I didn't sell any guides though.

      I haven't played World of Warcraft, followed it closely though as
      they were making it. I highly doubt though that there is any really
      secret info that is out there and that the guides to the game are
      any different then any guides to other games I have seen.

      What do I know though - I only logged over 12,000 hours playing
      Asherons Call and Runescape in a 2 year span.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769330].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Adamonation92
        i don't think anyone here touched on why it's such a good niche....

        yes there are lots of players and that is a large factor, but the REAL reason the niche is so great is because of the target market.

        You have a market of people who ALL have credit cards because they play wow.

        You have a market of people who are ALL willing to spend money online.

        You have a target market of people who are ALL ok with spending money online (lots of people still think they are going to get scammed)

        And lastly you have a target market of people who live a breathe wow. Selling a guide that makes you better is easier to sell than a glass of water to a guy in the middle of the desert.

        THAT is why the wow niche is so great.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769362].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    What you say is true for the most part Matthew, I would never sell a Runescape gold making guide because for the most part they are completely out of date with stuff that may have been simply mediocre several years ago.

    I much prefer if I had the time to build up a forum/blog and have a captive audience in that way, while giving them my secrets free of charge...yet building forums for RS has been done so many times in the past and is almost always doomed before the start.

    I won't get into the legalities of selling game gold here because it really is not the place but no real gamer does that, people who are looking to buy gold are after a quick fix and are usually the ones who cannot keep hold of it...

    What do they say about fools and their money? :p
    Signature
    “Thinking is easy, Acting is difficult
    And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goethe”
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769355].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Matthew Moyer
      I only sold the things because I had been looking at ebay and
      they had a section under the video games category called
      internet games.

      I had went there and people were bidding on items in Asherons
      call that I had a whole mess load of ingame. After selling those
      items I started a leveling service because I could level really fast
      and I didn't use a macro.

      Then I saw people paying $80 for a million gold in runescape and
      I had literally over a hundred million at that point so I just under
      cut everybody and sold all of it really quick.

      Made over $4k in two months and then someone bought some
      gold from me and did a charge back on paypal and they shut
      my paypal account down. Haven't been able to get one to stay
      open since.

      So I don't really recommend it and I think it might be illegal. Oh
      well it was long ago and I haven't made any money since.

      Not to mention that now there is tons of people who attempt
      to steal sellers out of items or their accounts by paying then
      charging back.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769390].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author freudianslip27
    Back before I got 100% in IM, I popped around with a few things, one of them was trying to resell currency and items in different games. It is a wild thing. It seems like anything else, it starts out as being a viable opportunity, but then EVERYONE does it, and it gets saturated.

    As far as making money now as an affiliate, I know some of those guides do well. People certainly are passionate about it, and new people often look for shortcuts.

    Matt
    Signature

    WarriorForum Rules!

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769401].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Sparhawke
    I disagree completely Adam, yes maybe they have to have access to credit cards but usually they belong to parents and are not their own.

    Even if you can find someone playing that game that happens to have a credit card you have to provide them with information they have never seen before and the big guide writers have teams of hundreds working together, for such a broad subject it is almost impossible to do it yourself when the first one who comes out with a guide gets the lions share.

    I have co-wrote the definitive money making guide with a group of about 10 others, with about 100 contributors and even that took us months...if you release a crappy guide that is you dead in the water...no one will ever trust you again and who can blame them?

    There are three great barriers to success in writing game guides:

    Whether people actually have the money available to buy. (regardless of whether they have access to parents credit card)

    Whether you get your guide out first to take 90% of the market, after you have pulled together a massive team to make it possible.

    Whether you can provide completely new techniques consistently that no one has ever seen before.

    Time, money and logistical problems always get in the way.

    If you are going to write game guides make sure you do it with a brand new game and get a name for yourself first by offering free help, then scale it by writing a book when you have a loyal following.
    Signature
    “Thinking is easy, Acting is difficult
    And to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world ~ Goethe”
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1769402].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Emily Meeks
      Originally Posted by Sparhawke View Post

      I disagree completely Adam, yes maybe they have to have access to credit cards but usually they belong to parents and are not their own.

      Even if you can find someone playing that game that happens to have a credit card you have to provide them with information they have never seen before and the big guide writers have teams of hundreds working together, for such a broad subject it is almost impossible to do it yourself when the first one who comes out with a guide gets the lions share.

      I have co-wrote the definitive money making guide with a group of about 10 others, with about 100 contributors and even that took us months...if you release a crappy guide that is you dead in the water...no one will ever trust you again and who can blame them?

      There are three great barriers to success in writing game guides:

      Whether people actually have the money available to buy. (regardless of whether they have access to parents credit card)

      Whether you get your guide out first to take 90% of the market, after you have pulled together a massive team to make it possible.

      Whether you can provide completely new techniques consistently that no one has ever seen before.

      Time, money and logistical problems always get in the way.

      If you are going to write game guides make sure you do it with a brand new game and get a name for yourself first by offering free help, then scale it by writing a book when you have a loyal following.
      Even though a lot of kids under 18 do play WoW, the vast majority of players I run across are 30's, 40's or older.

      I know, because I play WoW >
      Signature

      In all that you do, know your True INTENT...

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1770215].message }}

Trending Topics