Skeptical about my niche...

by Subseven

Posted: 11 years ago 16 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi everyone,

I am once again here because I could really use some feedback on an issue I have. I followed a guide to select an affiliate product on CB, and made a site for it ( Paleo Recipes for you | The best Paleo Recipes for you! ). Posted some articles as you can see, installed Aweber for list building. Now, to promote it, people suggested a couple of things. However, since I don't have real experience in this niche as fit young guy that eats whatever he wants, I find it hard to convince people to come to my site and read stuff. Maybe I'm way too quick to judge, but a few stats / facts over the last 48 hours:

Banned from Yahoo Answers (spam)
Banned from another forum (spam)
About 30 unique visitors.
23 hop counts
0 conversion
0 subscribers

Now, I know it takes some time to get the ball rolling, but I just don't really see how you can convince people to visit your site and buy stuff from you if you don't have a real interest / knowledge in the niche. Especially getting banned is very discouraging, as I haven't really made spam posts. I posted my article, and just posted encouraging messages on "diaries". My Yahoo answers might have been too short, but answers to certain questions are just thát simple. I might get discouraged quickly, but I think that's because I've been skeptical about building a CPA website around a niche that I'm not really into.

Now, I've thought about niches that I know a lot about, but haven't chosen them because of several reasons. My interests:

Skateboarding : Skateboarders are young people who usually don't have a lot of money to spend on things, certainly not order it online.
Computer games (Dota 2) : It's a game of skill, not a MMORPG. Most of the audience are cheap as well, I don't really see an oppertunity here. But, I have played MMORPG's before, and they have some interesting CB affiliates, so this might be an option.
Designing (Photoshop) : I know quite a bit about this, but haven't actually studied it, so a lot of experts have a lot more professional knowledge about this than me.
Music : The site in my signature, but I don't really know how to monetize this on any reasonable term. It's a small niche, and since I really like this genre, I don't want to ruin the site with advertisements.

My situation is that I really just want to start making something, and build up from there. But not seeing any subscriptions, conversions and on top of that getting banned are really discouraging to me and feed my feeling of not spending my time right. I don't expect to instantly make a whole load of money out of nothing, and have read up a lot and spend about 12 hours a day on building it up, but am not sure I am spending my time right.

Am I just not patient enough? Or should I focus on another niche or monetizing? What is wrong with my site? I have a lot of time on my hands, what would be the best way to invest it in? Can I do something with the interests I have?

I am willing to invest, but I want to invest more as I start to see some return, before throwing money at something that hasn't shown any sign of value yet.

I have learned a whole lot in the last couple of months here, on the forum, but seem to not be yielding any results yet. I think I still need to find my way in all of this, and I think the best way is to use the interests I have, but I just don't know how for the listed interests on a short term.

I am sorry for the long post, but really want to inform you the best I can, and hopefully get some valuable advice.

Thanks!

#niche #skeptical

Oliver Williams 11 years ago

I would start researching into the games niche if I were you. I know there are large search volumes for particular games and cheats and game related products.

And yes you are too impatient. ;-)

If you can be patient and persistent (even in the face of failure), have the ability to learn from your mistakes and still keep going then you will eventually start to see results coming in.
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travlinguy 11 years ago

Promote something you know about, like and enjoy. Something where there's a need you can fill. It makes things so much easier.
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XanBarksdale

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Subseven

The feeling you have right now sucks doesn't it! That's why I don't recommend anyone ever picking a niche that they "think could be profitable." Pick a niche that you're passionate/knowledgable about! The time you spend will be much more enjoyable and your site will be better because you know about skateboarding, you've probably visited good and bad skateboarding sites and know qualities of each, you won't mind writing articles about skateboarding, etc.

If I were you, I would give the skateboarding niche a shot...there are tons of things you could do with it:

1. Affiliate sales for skateboards, safety equipment, video games, clothing, etc.
2. Make review videos of your skateboarding equipment and monetize them with affiliate links and adsense through YouTube.
3. Instructional videos that teach people how to do tricks, change the wheels/bearings, etc.
4. Ebooks that explain how to do tricks, where to go skateboarding in your city, etc.

I'd like to see you try that niche out and report back how much more enjoyable it is. I think the money will follow!

Thanks

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Xan Barksdale | Lifestyle Entrepreneur

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wfhblueprints 11 years ago

To echo a few other comments in here...

You need a niche you are passionate about, so that you can go out there and build relationships with people.

The fact that you've been banned from yahoo answers and forums tells me that you've simply spammed your link around rather than had conversations with people.

1) Choose a niche you are passionate in.
2) learn from this experience....what did you dodo get banned....don't do it again!
3) Take action and be patient!

Kind regards,

Chris
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Niko A Berezkin 11 years ago

You can market anything you want. But yes it helps if you are genuinely interested in the topic, or at the very least know quite a bit about it.

Want to know if your niche is worth getting into and promoting?

Run a small CPC Adwords campaign on it. If you get clicks, and more importantly if you get conversions, the yes.... you have a winner and you should develop that site and niche fully, and get all the traffic you can.

If budget is an issue, here's a solution:

Set up Facebook Fan pages around all the niches you are interested in (these are free and you can have as many as you like). Make them legit, with posts, images, etc. Wait a week or 2. If you start getting natural traffic and fans to those pages, well there's genuine interest in those niches and people are actively searching for information on them.

But CPC is more reliable IMO.
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- mrjasonser 11 years ago
  
  Hi Subseven,
  
  Just wanna throw in some quick thoughts on what you think about your skateboarding niche:
  
  You said that young people usually don't have a lot of money to spend on things, certainly not order it online. I always thought that young people tend to spend more impulsively and willingly that older people for the things they LOVE!
  
  It took me 4 years when I finally decided to get myself a smartphones, but I have those 18-25 years young adults who always own the latest iPhone on their hands. Tere is this young chap I know who simply sell off his Old Phones to get the latest.
  
  Just look around to see how many young people own the latest gadgets and branded fashion items.
  
  Heree are some interesting news articles you can read to get what I mean:
  
  Why young people spend so much?
  
  Young, free and rearing to spend
  
  How The Young and Rich Millennial Redefine Luxury?
  
  Cheers
  Jason Ser
  
  Thanks
  
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drbrucehoag 11 years ago

You ask a really good question!

It can be a real challenge to maintain the enthusiasm you need to make your business in any niche work when you first start.

We all would like everything to succeed today. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. So, perhaps you are being a little too impatient.

But, there seems to be one thing that's missing from the posts thus far, and that is that you need to have a burning desire to make a difference in the lives of your prospects.

It's the old adage: No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

And that means that you have to develop a relationship with people before you can expect them to buy anything from you.

Let me give you an example.

Have you ever had someone show up on your doorstep who was trying to sell you something? What was your reaction? Did you welcome him/her in, and then say, "You know I've been dying for someone like you to ring my doorbell, so I could buy [whatever they're selling]?"

I doubt it. I certainly don't do that. I usually have the door closed before he/she gets through the opening sales pitch.

Online, especially, people have to get to know you. After awhile, they'll start to trust you. And then, if you're knowledgeable in the area of what they want, then they might take an interest in what you have to offer.

But you have to really care about what they want first. Start with that, and the rest will take care of itself.
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DubDubDubDot 11 years ago

Your niche is weightloss and there is nothing to be skeptical about there. You are actually in a micro niche (a specific type of diet), and those can be hard to drive traffic to.

It would be better if you had a broad topic weightloss site and then use that to feed traffic into the micro niche sites.

Originally Posted by Subseven

[*]Designing (Photoshop) : I know quite a bit about this

Put those skills to work on your sites. The free template look doesn't cut it.

There are also numerous presentation flaws. One of them really stands out though. At first I wasn't certain what the paleo diet was. You obviously knew people wouldn't know, so you wrote a post explaining it. The problem is I had to scroll down all the way to the bottom to find that post. The explanation should be on the main page towards the top.
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- GlenH 11 years ago
  
  When it comes to making money online, just being passionate about some interest or other is NOT your way to internet riches.
  
  With the interests you outlined that your passionate about (Skateboards, Computer Games, Designing, Music ). Computer games is not a niche, it's a market - Designing is not a niche, it's a market, and Music is not a niche, it's a market.
  
  So first and foremost, you have to hone in on the 'niches' within those markets.
  
  Then ideally what you should be trying to hone in on are the niches within those market that contain desperate buyers.
  
  Take the computer games market. And let's say you choose the niche World Of Warcraft as a niche within that market.
  
  You should be asking yourself, what questions, problems and issues do players of that game want solved. Are they desperate for information that will help them get higher score, or mover to another level. Or whatever.
  
  The point is, you need to identify the 'desperate buyer' in any niche.
  
  Maybe your market or niche doesn't have any 'desperate buyers' in it. Then instead of wasting your time battling to earn money from it, find a market and a niche that does.
  
  From my experiences, I get at least 10 fold increase in sales when I can pinpoint a niche market full of desperate buyers. People who are desperate for a solution, will always be ready to buy if you can offer them the solutions they are looking for.
  
  Thanks
  
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rosetrees 11 years ago

Just a "heads up". I read one of the articles on your site, which comes from Ezine. You have broken their terms and conditions by not including the author's resource box link.
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LaurieWheeler

11 years ago

You know, a good marketeer can sell anything to anyone, without having a "passion" for that particular product/idea/service. That being said, if you have the kind of personality that has to feel some kind of resonance with your product/idea/service then you do want to look for a niche in which you a) have experience and b) have an interest.

If you want to sell stuff, sell stuff. If you want to feel great about what you do, passionate, enthusiastic and selling stuff doesn't make you feel that way, then look doing it differently.

There's nothing wrong with folks who can "just make money" nor is there anything wrong with people who have to feel "aligned" with what their doing. You just have to know what works for you. For me? I can't sell anything I don't value, trust or believe in, just won't work for me, but it doesn't mean it has to be my overall passion either

Once you figure you out a little bit, then do some research.

Thanks
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Subseven

11 years ago

Originally Posted by mrjasonser

Hi Subseven,

Just wanna throw in some quick thoughts on what you think about your skateboarding niche:

You said that young people usually don't have a lot of money to spend on things, certainly not order it online. I always thought that young people tend to spend more impulsively and willingly that older people for the things they LOVE!

It took me 4 years when I finally decided to get myself a smartphones, but I have those 18-25 years young adults who always own the latest iPhone on their hands. Tere is this young chap I know who simply sell off his Old Phones to get the latest.

Thanks for your post. However, I think skateboarders are very specific. A few (discouraging facts):
- Skateboarders usually have less money than other people their age (lifestyle thing).
- They want to be able to see products before buying, unless they are "beginners".
- It's a community driven sport, meaning it doesn't support capitalism and would favor small passionate shops over affiliate sites.

Originally Posted by DubDubDubDot

Put those skills to work on your sites. The free template look doesn't cut it.

The explanation should be on the main page towards the top.

Hey, it's a premium template! But yeah, I've put more work in the content than the design. Thanks for the point, you are right.

As for now, I just don't know how to drive traffic to the site seeing I just don't know enough.

I had an idea to create my own product rather than promoting someone elses:
I play a game called DotA 2. It's a new game (still in beta) and is well on it's way (or is, already) to become one of the biggest e-sports games there is. I've been playing it (it's predecessor) for about 7 years, and know all there is to know about the game. I could create guides and write articles about the game to drive traffic, and monetize on the guides. However, there are a lot of sites also offering free guides (for example: Build Guide DOTA 2: Learning the Ropes - A Beginner's Guide to DotA ), and while I can assure quality, these guides aren't all that bad. What would make me "stand out" and sparkle players to spend money on my guides instead of getting free guides? Another idea was to create paid membership to get acces to premium content weekly. What do you guys think?

Oh, and I would like to thank everyone for their input by the way, I really value everyones opinion here!

Thanks
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Jill Carpenter 11 years ago

However, since I don't have real experience in this niche as fit young guy that eats whatever he wants, I find it hard to convince people to come to my site and read stuff.

Take a moment and think about the ethical side to this.

Pretend you are over weight.

Would you want to go to your own affiliate site and buy from someone who probably doesn't even know if the end product being promoted really works?

You are doing things exclusively for the MONEY.

It's not about the money.

It's about providing VALUE.

What value are you providing that is different?

What can you offer me on the subject that no one else can?

Surely not any personal experience, as you don't have it.

The only way you could consider this niche is if you had a friend who was into the topic who could give you some inside information - or if you hired someone with expertise.

People can sell what ever they want - as long as they have a true expert somewhere in their pocket.

This means either you need to be the expert or you need to have full access to one.
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napoleonfirst

11 years ago

Well, let me congratulate you for your decision of taking the I'm path as it is very rewarding and exciting in my opinion. My suggestion is that you should use Adsense in your music site. I do not think Adsense will screw your site up if you only use a couple of codes per page.

The other thing is that you need patience since this industry is rather complicated.

Thanks
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Subseven

11 years ago

Originally Posted by napoleonfirst

Yeah, you're right. I didn't mean screw up in the way of the page layout, but more in the faith / idea of genuinity the visitors have. But I'm sure it'll be fine. For now, I'm working on getting the site up and running, and then I'll promote it and see how I can build traffic. List building might be an idea, as well! But I don't want "marketing tools" to be seen first over the content, so I'll put it a bit further down.

In what way do you mean complicated? I believe I have chosen a niche that is very valuable, because while it's not for the masses (not pop music), it's a very underexposed genre, and there is a lot of interest for it. We'll see how it turns out, I'm pretty confident about this one. :-)

Thanks

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rossm 11 years ago

If your looking to sell your clickbank product, first of all you need to sell yourself.

That is why I believe one should always choose a niche you are knowledgeable about, passionate about, something you really enjoy.

When you are talking about your niche, you'll be able to offer far more value and your enthusiasm will shine through. Then there is a much better chance someone will buy your clickbank product.
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Skeptical about my niche...

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