Question for Alexa Smith and Other Experienced Clickbank Affiliates...

I personally believe you should consider the size of the potential market and the propensity for other back end products that your audience might want before you ever enter a specialized market.

If you do your demand research before entering a market, you will have a good idea of the problems/wants/desires of the audience and you will understand whether this is a "one product wonder" or (preferably) you will get lots of ideas of other backend products that will be targeted to the audience.

You don't see it as much today as a few years ago, but there were many IMers that jumped on the "build 500 niche sites and make a dollar a day from each one" band wagon as a strategy to make a full time income. Some had huge lists, but they found them very unresponsive for several reasons:

1. The list was not targeted to any commonality among subscribers;
2. Most list owners didn't nurture their subscribers - it was just too much work trying to give value in so many different niches;
3. It was difficult keeping all their web sites updated and adding new content;
4. What was supposed to be a passive way to make money turned into a big headache - too many sites to manage all at once;
5. Often the owners of such sites found their attention to any one site was so diluted they could not keep up any enthusiasm for the niche or desire to spend time in it.

Please understand that I am not knocking the multiple streams of income method but I feel most people see better results over time by focusing on one audience at a time. If/when you get to the point of having a thriving business in that one niche . . . then is the time to add a horizontal related niche that can feed off the past success of your original business.

The very best to you,

Steve

One of the basic tenets of marketing is to know and understand your prospective customers. For example, a technique I've always used was to build lists around targeted demographics rather than niches. Typically, people with common interests, vocation, members of organizations, clubs, etc tend to have similar and often predictable buying patterns. To maximize conversion rates you need to be able to relate or demonstrate an affinity with your target audience, and align marketing campaigns with their expectations and buying patterns.

Focusing on marketing by developing an affinity within specific groups of people who share similar interests can open up a broad spectrum of lucrative niches and opportunities for referrals and cross-sales. This can span hundreds of highly profitable niches, and marketing to them is a matter of matching relevant products to an engaging funnel system.

The most successful affiliates I know market to groups of people who they understand and can relate well on a more personal level. It is not limited to language, although nuances of context are every bit of much as a language barrier in communication with ethnic groups, gender, age, professionals, religious affiliation, and others otherwise known as demographics.

Personally, I targeted medical professionals, legal specialists, accountants, mechanical/electrical/aerospace engineers, managers in business/industry, academia faculty/researchers, trade associations, churches, civic groups, etc. People are multi-dimensional, and have a wide variety of interests which can optimally be monetized with effective list segmentation.

In the OP's example the targeted demographics might be single active 17-33 year olds (80% of incidence is within this age group of which nearly two-thirds are women). Source: Dermatology Online Journal - An evidence-based review of medical and surgical treatments of genital warts.

You also may be thrilled to know as a marketer of a genital warts eradication ebook, there really is no cure for the underlying cause. However, recurring genital warts usually disappear (with or without treatment) within a few months. So if you play your hand right and engage your prospects well, you may be able to sell new revisions of your ebook every 6-18 months.