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Confusion Over What You Guys Actually Sell

by wulf12
11 replies
So, I'm a professional web developer and a competent SEO. I make a decent living already with my services. However, what I do (web design) is hard manual work, takes a lot of time and technical expertise, not to mention years of study and lots of ongoing study.

I'm confused on how I read about some of you guys bouncing around to completely different niches from time to time.

First, I'm a little confused on how you can work in a niche and not be an expert on it?

Second, I'm very confused on what you're actually selling? Lets say you're selling a weight loss drug and/or book or something. Well, where did you get that product in the first place? Or, say you're marketing some product to model train hobbyists. Again, how do you have access to mass quantities of a product to sell that they couldn't also find from the original source instead of paying your inflated price? Wouldn't either of these involve a lot of manual labor, either writing/researching a book or manually shipping out physical inventory.

Am I confused here? Are you not selling actual products, ebooks, etc? Are you really just bringing traffic to your site and making money off Adsense? I believe I have all the skills necessary to make a lot of money marketing (I already do decent at it), but I'm looking to get away from the daily toil of what I do and move into something more "high level" (and also more profitable), where I manage it, not actually do all the manual labor.

My question probably seems vague and all over the place, but I'm just confused by the concept of how to make money without doing tedious manual labor on the product (like designing a website) and also how I can target a niche if I haven't already spent years learning that niche.
#confusion #guys #less work more money #sell
  • Profile picture of the author TG Arunah
    i hope u r aware of the power of affiliate marketing. if yes then why this question and confusion ?
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  • Profile picture of the author lukedidit
    lol at the above.

    They predominately use click bank and gain a commission from each sale. A fair amount of the marketing (content) is provided by the product vendor.

    Not many in niche centric websites are experts. They just put up enough content to satisfy a lay reader until they click on something.

    With adsense, quite often having poor content leads to user clicking a link to try and find somewhere more useful.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph G Spiteri
      We sell anything we think will be of value to our customers in the IM niche that is.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        I'm a little confused on how you can work in a niche and not be an expert on it?
        "Being an expert" in the niche is far more relevant to some business models than to others.

        I'm an article marketer, myself, so I do have to have (and to show) some expertise in each of my niches, and that would eventally become a limiting factor, as I add niches to my business, of course. From my own perspective, it excludes anything too technical (for which I'd have to go to evening classes just to understand the terminology), and in a sense it excludes anything in which I have no interest at all unless I'm willing to learn it from scratch to quite a high level (which I'm not). Fortunately, I'm interested in a lot of different things, and willing to "learn it up" to some extent if I think it's an easy enough market to target.

        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        Second, I'm very confused on what you're actually selling? Lets say you're selling a weight loss drug and/or book or something. Well, where did you get that product in the first place?
        Typically through a vendor with an existing product, who pays commissions to affiliates. One can find them through affiliate networks ("agencies" - like ClickBank) or in other ways.

        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        Or, say you're marketing some product to model train hobbyists. Again, how do you have access to mass quantities of a product to sell that they couldn't also find from the original source instead of paying your inflated price?
        Typically the price isn't inflated at all, because the affiliate's cut is paid by the vendor, from his takings, not by the customer from his purchase-price.

        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        Wouldn't either of these involve a lot of manual labor, either writing/researching a book or manually shipping out physical inventory.
        Yes - but those are "vendor problems", not "affiliate problems".

        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        Am I confused here?
        No, I don't think so. You're just asking good and relevant questions, but they're questions with answers.

        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        Are you not selling actual products, ebooks, etc?
        I am, yes, as an affiliate. I don't own the products, and I wasn't involved in their manufacture, though. I just "generate the customers" for the vendor, and the vendor pays me a cut on all the sales I introduce.

        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        Are you really just bringing traffic to your site and making money off Adsense?
        Personally, I don't and won't use AdSense. I wouldn't want to give potential customers additional ways to leave my sites (rather than staying there) which earn me only pennies, typically; and I wouldn't want to have the sort of sites which are quite as "obviously monetized" in what looks (to my customers) like a "downmarket way". So I stay well away from AdSense. I think others do well with AdSense with completely different sorts of websites from mine, if they have enough of them.

        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        I'm just confused by the concept of how to make money without doing tedious manual labor on the product (like designing a website)
        Designing a website is quick and easy. I'm technophobic and incompetent at anything like that, and even I can do it.

        People mostly do it using a content management system like "Wordpress" with which a lot of the work's already done. (I don't use it, myself - even Wordpress is too difficult for me but that doesn't stop me from earning a very good living).

        Originally Posted by wulf12 View Post

        how I can target a niche if I haven't already spent years learning that niche.
        Well, you have to find a "happy medium" medium of something you're willing to learn a bit about, which has a lot of potential traffic/customers available.

        You don't necessarily need to be an article marketer and attract your traffic like I do, by widespread syndication of articles with provocative titles like "XYZ-niche: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About It Is Actually Wrong" - that requires a bit of knowledge of/interest in the niche. Which - as you rightly say - is a bit of limiting factor.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rose Anderson
    Some people sell products from Clickbank or Commission Junction.

    For instance, using your example, say someone finds an ebook on model trains on Clickbank or a physical product on Commission Junction they want to sell. They can set up a blog or website with articles about model trains. They'll probably set up an opt-in list by offering a free product..."to receive your free report on '7 Things Every Model Train Collector Should Know' sign up for our mailing list (or newsletter). Then you can send them emails that offer information that they'll enjoy receiving. Every few emails you might tell them about a new product you've found that you like they would like.

    That's a brief example. But hopefully it explains the basic concept.
    Rose
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    • Profile picture of the author bitriot
      I can relate - I work at a digital marketing agency surrounded by world class devs and some SEO's and the like. I even got lectured once that paid links are a terrible idea (lol).

      Anyhow, for me, I make money in one of two ways: adsense and affiliate sales.

      For adsense, it is purely a numbers game and an SEO effort. All you need to do is rank for terms that drive traffic and without question, some of that traffic will click your banners. In fact, having crappy content increases your Ad CTR so really, it is just about ranking for terms with adsense. That said, I try to provide valuable content to my end users.

      With Affiliate sales, lets just say I use Amazon... Pretty much I just post reviews of products people are already interested in (which I find by doing keyword research). The idea is that the customer is already looking for this product - you just want to hand them off to the end retailer with your particular affiliate code.

      It doesn't need to be any more complicated than this. Of course, there are a million other ways to turn a buck, but this is what I do.
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  • Profile picture of the author wulf12
    Wow, a lot of great answers, explanations, and real-live examples. And FAST. It's only been like half an hour since I posted this. I really do appreciate the advice/info. Feel free to keep it coming!
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    wulf12 -

    Many brick and mortar merchants set up online so people can just generally (on approval usually) sell their products online. There are all forms of affiliate managers, such as Share-a-Sale.com and CommissionJunction.com. Some vendors just have their own computer systems set up with affiliate programs that track results, record sales, offer advertising materials, etc.

    A merchant in brick and mortar has a lot of overhead. They don't need to inflate prices for a salesperson online because they are saving money in overhead, in taxes, benefits, etc. When you consider how low commissions are for most physical product sales, it takes some of the wonder out of why a brick and mortar business would set up to sell online.

    Some people make their own products, and those are usually eproducts, typically either ebooks or software. They also have affiliate managers such as RAP and Clickbank that they can set up their product on.

    Are prices for eproducts inflated? I believe so. Very highly usually when you consider that you can often buy a textbook for the same price or less than some ebooks. But realize - people who want to make money on their own will buy information teaching them how to do so at a higher price than people are generally willing to pay for a book in a physical store. I've seen things selling at crazy jacked prices. When you get niches that go into the general public markets, your prices have to go down to normal for that market or you aren't going to succeed.


    As far as knowing the niche - it sure helps. There are a lot of people that seem to feel you can just rehash everyone else's material and make good money. They are the ones that cause the complaints you hear in here about the WSO forum.

    In any niche, once you get a solid and well known name in the niche, you can hike prices for your material. People with solid names in IM make a killing online - which is why you get so much copycat trash floating around. It costs very little to try your hand in the emarkets.

    Edit - wow a LOT of people posted between the time I started writing and posted - if I am redundant, oops.
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    Sal
    When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
    Beyond the Path

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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by HeySal View Post

      Edit - wow a LOT of people posted between the time I started writing and posted - if I am redundant, oops.
      Same here - just what I was thinking after I posted! Can't type as fast, with fingernails, as some, apparently ... :p
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      • Profile picture of the author HeySal
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Same here - just what I was thinking after I posted! Can't type as fast, with fingernails, as some, apparently ... :p

        This early for me, it's making more coffee in the middle of typing that gets to me. I couldn't stomach deleting my effort just yet though, so opted for people taking redundancy as a reinforcement of what everyone else said.
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        Sal
        When the Roads and Paths end, learn to guide yourself through the wilderness
        Beyond the Path

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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    The OP reminds me of this commercial:

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