If you're doing this, stop. That's if you want to make money

by 55 replies
67
  • Finding a product/service to promote
  • Writing (or ordering) 100s of articles promoting this product/service
  • Putting these articles on your blog
  • Putting these articles on directories, document sharing sites, etc.
  • Collecting email addresses for your list
  • Sending out emails to your list
  • Acquiring backlinks to your blog
This approach is never going to make you anything more than a few hundred dollars a month. Taking a part time job at Burger King will be more rewarding (and they give you free meals).

Do this instead:
  1. Pick a niche, preferably one popular with people 50+ (they spend the most money and more readily). Visit the top 5 forums catering for this niche and find the common problem these people share. It may not be immediately obvious but a little careful reading and you'll find it.
  2. Research this issue and find the solution. If there is no solution it doesn't matter. Write a 1000-5000 word article on how to solve the problem (or why it can't be solved).
  3. Put this article on an easy to read website along with your name.
  4. Find a new problem and find the solution (or lack of one) and create a new article.
  5. Do it again. And again. And again.
Once you have at least 10 such articles drop by the forums and facebook groups and find the posts that your articles solve. Briefly summarize the answer and link to your site. You can do the same as comments to blog posts.

Your posts are highly unlikely to be deleted as spam because the site you are linking to will be (a) non-commercial and (b) genuinely useful and (c) you are a member of the forum or group.

Not only will the links you post remain but other people will post your links for you. People who are genuinely interested in their niche (they don't call it a niche of course) and consider themselves part of a community will have no problem linking to sites they consider useful. No-one is going to link to (recommend) a site that is just 50 variations of the same article that is just promoting some high priced item.

Sign up to twitter an use it as a help-desk. Encourage people to follow you on twitter so that they can post questions about your niche. Answer them via tweet. A signature link saying something like "Got a question about XXXX tweet me [twitter link] and I'll try to answer if for you".

Now your following is building, start a monthly newsletter. Treat this as a genuine newsletter. Tell your readers what you been up to - regarding your niche - and let them know about any new developments.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey...

The first year should be spent entirely building up your reputation as an authority on the subject. Not a salesman flogging products online. What you are building is social capital. What you can expect after a year is:
  • A substantial following of people who trust you
  • A large group of skilled, talented and well-placed people who want to help you
Now you can start to make some real money online (and offline too).
#main internet marketing discussion forum #make #money #stop
  • Wow, nice strategy~!

    How about selling advertising space on buysellads if you have so much traffic but not selling a product?
  • Nice post and good information, but what do you recommend for monetizing this newsletter list once you create it? Do you create products to sell, do coaching, affiliate products, etc.?
  • Great strategy! How did you come up with the 50+ concept?
  • Sound like too much hard work
    Just kidding, it's great advise.
  • This teaches us how to be more of a leader than a follower like what a real marketer should be! The usual works but if you want a better future in marketing then you shoudl change/tweak some things.
    This is truly a very inspirational post that's worth a bookmark! I will try to implement this ASAP.

    Ryuchi
  • Thanks really good advice that I am going to implement very soon, there are some great points that you have covered
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply

    • Finally, someone that can spell "advice" I am getting irritated at seeing "advise" all the time.



      As a person who knows a LOT of 50+ people, may I suggest your spelling and grammar be correct? The people in this demographic were educated properly and have little patience for errors in writing.

      chemo38
      • [1] reply
  • Great info thank you for sharing!
  • Very interesting post. I disagree though in 2 points:

    a) Waiting a full year to monetize off a niche. You can build reputation in any community (forum, facebook group, etc) in just a few weeks, no need to wait for a full year.

    b) Aiming only to elder people (50+). In fact, I think that's a very bad idea since 50+ people are not into online shopping (many are not even into internet at all).
    • [2] replies
    • If you're targeting people 50+, a few weeks barely registers on their radar.

      I think if you do the math, you'll find that the people who were in their thirties during the early nineties when the internet became widely adopted by the general public... are now in their fifties.

      My psychic powers tell me that you don't sell much to people in their fifties because you don't spend enough time gaining their trust. This makes it look like 50+ customers aren't out there, when the truth is you simply haven't done what it takes to get them.
    • The best ting to do is to find some data. Like these:
      But recent trends show older people are among the fastest-growing demographics online. Social network use among Internet users 50 years old and older has nearly doubled to 42% over the past year. In fact, in the U.S. alone there are nearly 16 million people 55 and older using Facebook.
      How Baby Boomers Are Embracing Digital Media

      Then there's statistics like this one:
      Average age of an online shopper is.....42.
      Frankly, you can't average 42 without having lot of 50+
      Buysight: Who's Shopping Online?

      And some more detailed statistics:
      » Demographic profile of online shoppers @ IT Facts

      So these are the statistcs and data (albeit only a very quick google search) I found that support the argument that 50+ is a great target audience for IM and online shopping.
      What data did you find that support your argument below?

  • You are absolutely right. I think thinking outside the box, tweaking ideas and analyzing their outcome will go a longer way than doing what every other person is doing.
  • "In fact, I think that's a very bad idea since 50+ people are not into online shopping (many are not even into internet at all)"

    Errm - being somewhat older I find myself disagreeing with that statement :-)
  • [DELETED]
    • [1] reply
    • All of this is a matter of opinion (including what the OP stated). Personally I would agree that 50+ would be a bad demographic to target, but opinions aren't going to make us any money.

      If anyone has any FACTS or STATISTICS to back up these claims that would really help us here.
      • [1] reply
  • Quality trumps Quantity daily and forever.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • my philosopher, thank you for sharing that 'out of the box' approach to internet marketing but its still the long way around. One year, jesus!

    ranking for the 'right' keywords and giving my audience info they can use at the same time providing related affili. products and services. Well, this method has been very good to me ;-)
  • I def. agree with the slowly catchy monkey ... and the outline of steps. But I'm sensing the timeline is determined by how quickly or slowly your prospects move in the market and whether you can successfully step into that ebb and flow.
  • I think this idea is great. I would approach social groups and forums of all ages as many age groups are looking for specialied forums to answer their queries.
  • I LOVE IT! This is such an unbelievably good strategy. Instead of creating 100s of worthless articles that nobody wants to read anyway, create a couple stunning ones at a time. Brilliant. I'm faving this post, and will put it into practice immediately.
  • Yes he clearly suggests going after the 50+ market. I am sure that there is a lot of market research which will indicate if this market is shopping online. Based on the people I know (including myself!) it does make sense.
  • Banned
    Thanks for sharing this.

    I am one of those people who was looking for a product to promote through affiliates. I've never really thought about the idea of picking a niche then going to forums, resolving problems and getting money through that.
  • Just a question for some of you to ponder - what demographic do you think, on average, has more discretionary income, the baby boomers ( 50+ ) or the younger gen? Which demographic do you think plops down more money to look better (beauty products), or feel better (health products)?

    Before you totally decide on a market, you might want to look at where the money is...
  • This is a good strategy, but the idea that the other strategy doesn't work is silly. If you can follow the first strategy and make a few hundred a month, then you can repeat that process and make a few hundred a month more and so on.

    There is something about IM that everyone thinks their strategy is the best and the others are worthless. This is a silly mindset (and very much NOT true). This mindset holds marketers back as they are unwilling to learn from other methods of marketing.
    • [1] reply
    • This is why I always say that everyone should test, test, and test some more!

      You bring up a valid point because different methods work for different people. Some may not see results with a particular method while others don't but find success in a different method.

      Why? That is the million dollar question.

      Anyway, why not do both?

      If someone is using the first method and wants to try the second method, I wouldn't recommend just stopping the first if a steady income is coming from it.

      Terra
      • [1] reply
  • [DELETED]
  • [DELETED]
  • Hi members,

    I am new in IM so i have just created a website (2 months old now) i am using adbrite to monetize it, but they are paying to low. Can you suggest an alternative for cpa and cpc networks apart of adsense - they refused my application. I am getting from 205 to 264 unique visitors a day is this good? Can you guys check my website for the best monetization solution? whatisabdominalpain.com

    Thank you all very much and i am sorry for the newbie thing
  • There certainly is plenty of demographic information available to justify focused marketing to the Baby Boomer generation. One word of caution, though. Make sure you do plenty of market research before you start writing. Using words like aging or senior or elderly is an immediate turn-off. Instead, focus on solutions and support for an active lifestyle.
  • Seeking a 50+ audience was only a suggestion ("preferably" was the word I used)

    Put simply seniors are online in greater numbers and more often, and longer, than any other age group. Not only this but they embrace the online world more fully that 30-55yr olds.

    In fact, I would confidently suggest that 30-55yr olds are by far the most cynical and less likely to spend money group using the internet today. The reason being, I think, is that 14-29yr olds an 55yr old+ embrace the online world as something new, whereas the 30-55yr olds have been slowly introduced over many years. On top of this, they are much more cynical. Young people are excused not knowing much (because they are less experienced). So are seniors (because this is new to them, they are also inexperienced).

    Obviously, in individual cases there are very experienced people under 30 and over 55 but we're talking about groups in general.
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks for posting those facts, I stand corrected.

      Definetly looks like a demoraphic to research more and break into. Very contrary to stereotype I grew up with that seniors just don't understand computers and they'd rather not learn.
      • [1] reply
  • My father-in-law, 70+, joked that he needed to buy "The Dummies Guide to Using a Mouse"

    The interesting thing about this joke was that in order to make it he needed to know about the Dummies Guide series and that they wrote a lot a books for people getting to grips with the internet. How did he know about these books? He'd gone online and looked for them... with the intention of buying whatever he found. This is a man who has stepped foot in bricks and motar bookstore maybe twice in his entire life!

    What made me research 50+ online shopping habits was listening to the list of things he (and his wife) and their friends had bought online. His monthly spend was averaging £500 or more.

    Their attitude is like:
    • Weekly shopping... you can get that online now
    • Train tickets/holidays... you can get that online now
    • Programs to display your photographs/movies... you can get that online now
    • Searching your family tree... you can get that online now
    • Calling a plumber/electrician/handy man... you can get that online now
    • And so on...
    They don't want free stuff either. They've got money and they're looking to spend.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Now, you need to explain the important of focus. :p
  • Great advice. I think most people forget SEO is first and far-most a marketing function. This is a good long-term strategy. In fact, it's more like a business plan. Good Work.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • This is definitely worth a try... Though not selling anything for a year may be a challenge...
  • I don't make a lot in IM yet, but my best producing site is an authority site and the income from it goes up a little each time my wife or I participate in the forums on the topic.

    I like your idea and can see how applying more to this site could increase our income.
    Then rinse and repeat.
  • [DELETED]
    • [1] reply
    • Good post, but if you follow this approach, you have to really that niche ... a lot. Otherwise it may become torture.
  • The rest of what you posted that I did not quote above is very good and people should do that, also.

    However, they should also keep doing the steps above. And as for only making a few hundred dollars a month, I can tell you that you can make much more than that depending on your market and your list.

    I've only been doing this for 5 months and am doing well.
  • finding that niche is the hard part. and what makes you think you can be an expert on something that so many people are have been trying to become for years? you better be good at something
  • yeah, I am totally agree with this strategy. But the main question still open - which niches?
  • SOLID GOLD!

    James Scholes
  • I like the idea but would add that you still need to do SEO work and you still need to work on ways to monetize that traffic. Still, smart move on focusing on a specific age group.
  • This is good idea.but we should work smart not harder
  • Sounds a good plan to me. But I never stop building my list.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • Great strategy, thanks for this wonderful sharing. It Sounds a good plan.
    • [1] reply
    • Good points that I will put into practice. Very helpful for newbies.
      • [1] reply
  • Yes it does.

    People pay for SOLUTIONS, not suggestions.

    YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.
  • Your approach is excellent. Rather than just make noise, do something that addresses a problem and then fixes said problem. In general, especially for Newbies, this is a good formula to follow. Thanks!
  • The basis of making money online.. Find people with a problem and sell them stuff that fixes it... I think so many people make it harder than it really is.. I struggled with this problem in the beginning.. Trying to buy Facebook likes and backlinks.. If you put the right information in front of the right people, then they will buy..

    I was just on Facebook and this absolutely beautiful woman posted something on her wall.. Along comes some jerk and says, what he thinks will win her over... I have reports for every situation and constantly thinking of new ones.. Told him that's not how to talk to women and gave him the link to my free report..

    Of course I'm selling something at the end but the catch is it's opt-in free. The only way he can get it though is by sharing it on his wall.. It's not a new trick but I'm loving it. Tested it on one of my ebooks and it not only gets me a steady flow of traffic but I get a steady number of downloads per day and at least one sale per week..

    When something work.. do it over and over and over until you're sick of doing it over and over..

    Great tips Kierkegaard.. Thanks for sharing...
  • Good ideas. Better than the standard write lots of articles and make blog posts about...well...whatever.

    And you're right. That will NEVER make you any serious amount of money. I think plenty of people in here can vouch for that fact.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • Good advice, thanks for posting!
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed

  • 67

    If you're doing this, stop. That's if you want to make money

    Finding a product/service to promote Writing (or ordering) 100s of articles promoting this product/service Putting these articles on your blog Putting these articles on directories, document sharing sites, etc. Collecting email addresses for your list Sending out emails to your list Acquiring backlinks to your blog This approach is never going to make you anything more than a few hundred dollars a month. Taking a part time job at Burger King will be more rewarding (and they give you free meals). Do this instead: