Starting to see a pattern

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73
One thing thats starting to get me concerned, is it seems people are only making money by promoting money making products, and using the IM niche. Especially on here. It seems everyone only promotes these types of products. I may be way off base on this though. I have no desire to enter this niche, and am starting to wonder if this is my only realistic means of making money. Ive gotten lots of good feedback on my blog, with lots of hits, and clicks, but no sales at all. I guess I feel Im wasting my time. Starting to get the newbie blues. All advice I got when starting was to NOT choose the money making niche, but its all I see Warriors promoting. This leaves me with mixed feelings.....if Im way off base please correct me!

Thanks
#main internet marketing discussion forum #pattern #starting
  • Hey - we were all in your situation at one point, so I understand how you feel. Everyone who you may call "successful" HAD to go through the long period at the beginning of failing, testing, failing again and again until they figured out how to make it work. I respect you for hanging in, your success can be just a few steps away.

    As for niches - yes, most of the offers here on Warrior are on making money because... we are all internet marketers! Why would there be any health or fitness products here? We're a forum for internet marketers, so obviously there are tons of marketing products here.

    "Making money online" is NOT the only niche you can make money in. The real secret? The best niches are OUTSIDE the "IM niche". Why? Because we're some of the most sophisticated and cutting-edge professionals on the web. The IM niche is where so many innovations START (for example, video sales letters, testimonials, etc.)

    There are so many niches out there that don't have a FRACTION of the number of professional marketers in the IM niche, so sometimes you can be an average online marketer and completely dominate that niche.

    Online marketing/making money online is just one niche, there are many, many, MANY opportunities that are more profitable!
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  • This is an IM forum so naturally people will promote MMO products on here rather than their products in other niches. There is plenty of money to be made in all areas. Find out a problem that many people seem to be having and fix it for them.

    Keep working hard and good things will come.
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  • Well this forums general topic happens to be internet marketing, so any advertising done by users on this site is typically targeted towards IM stuff so that more people will click on it. I'm sure most have more projects and sites than just those.
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  • Well Warrior forum is pretty much about people asking how to make money so you can't blame anyone there. But it is true, there is far too much competition in the money making niche, it would be a good idea if you could pick a less competitive niche as that way you can be ensured to get some sales.
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  • I think it only appears that they are all promoting money-making products; when in reality it's just all you see like the tip of the iceberg.

    The warrior forum is a good place to advertise your money-making products because it's full of people who are interested in that kind of thing. There could be millions of other marketers doing other stuff - but you just don't see or hear about it because they are happily making their millions - why tell others who will create competition?

    No idea if I'm right just throwing out ideas
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  • Thanks for the input. I want to sell physical products, and my blog is about electronics. Im using Amazon as my affiliate program for this site. Is this a viable business model?
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    • Symbolic, why not?

      Get traffic, people click on your offers, they buy from amazon -> you get commission.

      =)

      Here's a quick tip for ya -> scale and automation e.g

      You write 10 articles per week and get 1 site up
      vs
      You outsource 50 articles and get 10 sites up

      Think about your long term ROI.

      Cheers yoong
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  • Business is about finding people who want and need things. This place is crazy with people who want to learn how to sell online. The Warrior Forum is a huge market. People selling MMO products are simply serving that market.

    The mechanics of selling online are the same whether you're selling toothpaste, dog food or flowers delivered worldwide.
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  • To answer your question, think of it like this...

    There are countless numbers of websites out there. A very high percentage of them are earning money via cpa, affiliate, ad selling etc everyday... What percentage of them do you think is IM related? A very small amount (my educated guess. Don't quote me on it ).

    So, NO. You don't need to be in the IM niche to make money. There are tons of other niches out there that are way less competitive and more profitable.
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    • Dash is correct! The way I tackle this is to have 2 blogs in two markets that I am passionate about:

      Risingfist.com - Music Blog/Record Distro
      TrueWebPresence.com - Internet Marketing Blog

      The only reason I have an Internet Marketing Blog is because it is a topic I am passionate about. Many here would probably say the same thing!
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  • this is good to hear. Im hoping my blog starts accruing revenue. I have some other projects up my sleeve that Im working on. But this is a long term blog, aimed at passive income. I guess I was expecting to much to be making money from a blog so soon. If anyone would like to take a look at it, Id gladly pass on the link.
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    • Create a signature file and put the link in there. It would be a shame to not have exposure for your stuff in the #1 Internet Marketing forum in the world.
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  • Hey Symbolic.......

    I sell automatic gold pans, highbankers, rock picks - skin care and weight control info products -

    Want some?

    Sure there's other stuff. A lot of what you see in here is just (and no I didn't skim, I KNOW everyone already said so) because this is where the marketers are. We discuss how to build businesses too - and that's for any niche you want to hit. Sometimes were get a flood of newbies in here and you get a million "how I made this much money" posts, etc. and you will find people with very good products for marketers in general.

    So..........figure out what YOU want to do, and that's what you should do. If you don't get rich over night, well - read what the actually successful people have to say -- it's a lot of work. Think off line business amounts of work (although at a computer and most often a hell of a lot cheaper than overhead) to build yours and you'll be on target.
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    • So I'm guessing the skin care and weight loss products are for those people who bought the automatic gold pans, got sunburned and prematurely aged while watching nothing but dirt come out of the pan, and subsequently tried to ease their depression by eating and became overweight?
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  • Symbolic, you want to get into this niche?

    Getting traffic is what most marketers struggle with. Continue blogging and collecting subscribers. Or find another source of traffic generation that you can master.

    Then when you're ready, offer a service where you deliver traffic for other marketers, or create a product teaching your traffic strategy.

    No matter the niche, marketing is really about solving problems.
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  • honestly at first I also though that the whole IM thing was simply a big con were only so-called gurus actually made money.

    fact is, IM is also another niche that you can make money from. It doesnt mean that its the only one that works tho.

    There are tons of evergreen niches that makes tons of money.
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  • Everyone has been super helpful. Lifted my spirits a bit. Thanks a ton. Ill post my blog link in my sig
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    • Lets see if it works! lol
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    • Honestly I thought so too when I first started visiting these forums years ago. It made me a bit angry and I didnt come back for some time.

      Now that I have my own product in development, I came back just a couple months ago and found that this is the most useful forum with a ****ton of free info and a horde of people who want to help you out no matter your market.

      Sure there are people in the Make Money market trying to pitch you as a newbie, but if you've gotten past the indecisive/unconfident phase (as you have) and have chosen a path for yourself, this is the best place to get specific feedback and advice from people who've been in your shoes before and want to see you succeed just cause they've gotten the same support too.
  • I'm familiar with your competition, you have your work cut out for you, to say the least. Check out direct2drive.com for an affiliate for Direct Game Downloads, I believe their commission is a little higher, better creatives for your advertisement, and a better game inventory than Amazon has. I believe they run through commission junction, but there is an aff link on their site.

    Good Luck
  • I'll offer another suggestion, Justin:
    since you just started the site at the beginning of June, change your directory/link structure on your site before you get too far along.

    This:
    gamingreviewsandmore.com/2011/06/11/battlefield-3-call-of-duty-killer/

    should be this:gamingreviewsandmore.com/battlefield-3-call-of-duty-killer/

    if you get console specific, include it in the url. ( battlefield-3-call-of-duty-killer-PC)

    You are doing game reviews, there will not be repeat titles. The deeper the directory structure, the lesser importance of the page.

    Think keywords when designing your URL and directory structures. Every little bit adds up for better SEO.
  • Thanks for the information Ken.

    And I did alot of research on this niche before I started. It seems there are alot of crappy "review" sites ranked high in Google for "gaming reviews" There are the usual suspects ala IGN and Gamestop. But Im not competing with them. I figured this would be a good route for passive income. Maybe Im totally wrong and wasting my time. Sigh. I hope not. Ive already gotten very positive feedback on my writing, so I dont know...
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    • You do write good reviews, and there are more traffic avenues than the searches. If you play MMORPGs, that is an excellent place to passively promote your site. Facebook can work well for you also. The G4tv.com forums are also a good avenue to get exposure to gamers. Don't outright spam, but mention "reviews" you have just read and discuss the game. This will allow you to post a link without having it removed. Gamers also search out images. If you can create your own screen captures, think keywords when you name them. Be sure to use alt tags and again, think keywords. I have gotten many thousands of visits just from images.

      I suggested the downloads because that seems to be what people want, instant satisfaction. For PC games, downloads are selling better than hard copies.

      In my opinion, you will want to concentrate on each individual game as far as SEO. Most people looking for reviews search for a specific game. "Metal of Honor Review", etc.. If you can beat others to the punch, all the better.

      I see you are linking out to your Amazon affiliate every time you mention the game's name. You may want to limit this to one occurrence and make all affiliate links nofollow, or Panda may get you.

      Gamers love guides and cheats, also. There are a few leveling guides on clickbank you can offer. And, if you don't mind the ethics of purchasing "gold" for some of the MMOs, an affiliate with one of the suppliers can bring in some income.

      I know your niche extremely well and held high profile placements in the top 5 for quite some time until I pissed off Google recently. They are very protective of their big dollar advertisers.

      Anyway, the best of luck to you and keep up the good work.

      Ken
  • It's all B.S.
    Here's why - most experienced people will tell noobs to stay out of the biz op niche because there's too much competition. But in reality, as a noob, you do want to have a niche or two where there's a lot of competition. You see, where there's a lot of competition, there's money. I'm not telling you to become a fake guru and tell people how much money you've made, when you haven't. But you can use some common sense and become an affiliate for someone who is doing well with a biz op product.
    Some highly competitive niches can work well for noobs because it's like shooting fish in a barrel. You just have to know the correct marketing methods and haul azz online. Even if you don't know what you're doing, you'll still get some fish.
    In addition, I would advise a noobie to also get into the less competitive areas or find some niches that are still untapped and show potential.





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    • Would it be a good idea to sign up for Aweber and attempt to build a list?

      Also I have not put any Adsense on my blog. Would this be a wise idea?
  • Are you building a list? You may not begin to gain some traction until you do. Also, if you want to ensure that your subscribers open your emails long down the road, make sure to include a mixture of free, valuable content along with your paid offers.
  • I'm making money in a niche that has nothing to do with make money.

    It's an infoproduct on clickbank.

    Like you said, I don't recommend beginners to enter the makemoney niche.

    Go with other niches because you can take them over so easily.

    Maybe I will enter the makemoney niche later but I don't know yet.

    Also if you plan to sell to the make money niche, it's way more impressive if you can show what you have sold to other niches.
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  • TBQH I have no desire to enter the money making niche. Its far to competitive, and I dont think Ill enjoy it to much. Its much easier for me to find things Im passionate about, as it really comes out in the writing.
  • It is just that it seems the MMO niche is one of the largest and most evergreen niches of them all.

    And since we know so much about it that is why we promote it.

    Doesn't mean there aren't people who promote outside of MMO niche though..


    Also, it would make sense that people would promote MMO here on the forum simply because this is where the market hangs out. You wouldn't go to a bodybuilding forum promoting MMO but you would promote a fitness product.

    Head over to some other forums to see what I mean
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  • There are always other niches, like my book on finding new niches within niches within niches. Nicheception.

    Or there's my other book on 'How to be a porn star in bed, every time'.

    Or you could just Sell your body on cam-sites, I hear that's good money.

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    • I get paid to not show my body on cam-sites. There's good money in that too, if you've got the looks for it.
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  • nice blog Symbolic. that's cool that you are sticking with what you know and enjoy. I have a couple suggestions that could help you out, but these other more seasoned marketers might be able to add to them for you. If you have the time and effort to make your own "trailers" instead of using the game's main one, you could get some traffic / advertisements that way. Add your web address to the corner of the video, and use something like tubemogul to broadcast the videos. If you are getting a decent amount of traffic, you could also contact gaming sites & companies to persuade them into giving you free items to make a sweepstakes with. Usually you would put their name/logo on the sweepstakes, give them the names & info gathered from sign-ups, but doesn't cost you anything and they get cheap advertising. Just some ideas, good luck!
  • 95% of the money I make online is not from the "make money online" niche.

    My blog right now is just to help people that are just starting out. If I make some money from it, that's a bonus... but right now, I'm not depending on my blog...
  • You are experiencing what most, if not all of the newbies that start out marketing online and is one of the main reasons why most of them will fail.

    You just need to stay focused and continue to market as best as you can and be persistent.

    There's so many different types of niches out there that marketers are involved with. Making money online while a big one, is far from the only niche that is selling right now.

    If you were to get involved in my main niche for generating traffic, you'd probably suffer from information overload while you are working to promote your own website in the process.

    The key is to always be doing whatever you can to build your website through traffic generation, SEO, social media, list builders and any other forms of marketing available online.
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  • Again guys- Thanks so much. Very much obliged. Gave me some much needed motivation and gave me ideas to expand my site. Well the one in my sig. Ive got 2 others I am building at the moment, but Im going with a different approach with those.
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    • No problem, You're website is very informative and will definitely grab the readers attention. I gotta admit it had me pulled in when I saw Infamous2 and Battlefield 3.

      Just stay consistent in whatever form of marketing that you are doing and you'll start making money sooner than later.
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  • This may be a dumb question...in fact I know it is. But how exactly would my Amazon links get me reamed by Panda? You suggest just 1 an article? That seems reasonable.
  • I don't think your site has developed enough to throw the towel in on the project, or to bemoan the harsh IM industry.

    1) Your writing style is very rote and basic. I know Infamous 2 has some replay value to see the second ending, I know Portal 2 has a sense of humor. That's great. But if I'm going to your site, and I'm supposed to be going there again and again presumably, what's the emotional hook that's drawing me into your work? What's attaching me to YOU as a reviewer besides your name being in the logo? It's a question you have to answer for yourself I guess. Where's the humor, rage, passion, gimmickry, unique rating system, etc?

    2) Why are you only reviewing big releases? Gaming isn't my niche (I just play them) but Portal, Call of Duty, and Battlefield are all major releases and probably very competitive. Also, they're all of a predictably high quality. People like controversy: I wouldn't tell you to slam a good game for publicity, but people get engaged when their own sacred cows are on the line.

    3) Where's your call to action in these reviews? Also, where's the More? What is it?

    4) How are you promoting? Are you sure you want to brand yourself so heavily? Keep in mind that most successful gaming review sites have a staff to handle all the big releases. Have you considered reviewing indie PC games and getting backlinks from the developers?

    5) Have you researched other avenues for profit besides Amazon? In Amazon, are you looking at older games that are selling well and doing "classic reviews" of those?

    I could probably go to 10 but I don't want to overwhelm you or give off a negative tone. There's work to be done, so don't give up and do it!
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    • I'm not even sure how to respond to this. There is more than reviews on my site. Its all right there. Its about 50/50 right now between reviews and news/impressions so.........I appreciate your input, but your honestly the first person who said my writing style was lacking. Also I'm not making this a blatant sales site. I want to give my readers good, consistent content.
  • Banned
    One thing that concerns me is that people use the word everyone to mean some people.

    Actually, many newbies tend to just jump right in to the Make Money Online market without any real thought behind it at all and no knowledge of how to make money online. It's the fake it till you make it syndrome.

    There are many profitable ways to make money.
  • You hear about that a lot here but the truth is just about everyone in IM promotes IM and some other niche as well.
  • Not being funny but am i wrong in thinking ANY niche can potentially be profitable? If there is search volume and demand for products, physical or otherwise, why wouldn't it be profitable one way or another?

    Okay, when i say "ANY niche", i mean a niche that has the above in common.

    As far as i'm concerned it's about search volume, demand, buyer keywords and SEO - unless of course i'm totally missing something.
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  • My experience is that you can make more money in the non-MMO niches.
    And in other niches there are far less requests for refunds.
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  • Yo Maverick,

    You're missing how much effort, time, money and creativity your willing to put into your niche.

    How "dedicated" are you to your niche?
  • Certainly make sure that your blog is ranking for what would be buying keywords. If your visitors are all people that found you in the search for some general info, they probably are not going to be interested in purchasing any related products with the drop of a hat.

    Goodluck to you!

    -FitnessNut
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  • exactly...the discussion follows through that pattern because its what people are asking about...
    • [1] reply
    • Again- you guys are awesome!
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  • 73

    Starting to see a pattern

    One thing thats starting to get me concerned, is it seems people are only making money by promoting money making products, and using the IM niche. Especially on here. It seems everyone only promotes these types of products. I may be way off base on this though. I have no desire to enter this niche, and am starting to wonder if this is my only realistic means of making money. Ive gotten lots of good feedback on my blog, with lots of hits, and clicks, but no sales at all. I guess I feel Im wasting my time. Starting to get the newbie blues. All advice I got when starting was to NOT choose the money making niche, but its all I see Warriors promoting. This leaves me with mixed feelings.....if Im way off base please correct me! Thanks